COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, August 18, 2025 (ePRESS) – The owners of a Singapore-registered vessel on Friday urged Sri Lanka to seek more “rational” compensation after being ordered to pay US$1 billion for causing the island’s worst-ever case of marine pollution.
Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court in July directed X-Press Feeders to pay the damages within a year over the 2021 disaster, when their container ship, the MV X-Press Pearl, caught fire and later sank off Colombo port.
The court also ruled that the ship’s skipper and local agents should face criminal charges over the incident.
“From the very start, X-Press Feeders has expressed deep regret to the people of Sri Lanka for the impact … and remained committed to fully assist … in all clean-up operations,” the owners said in a statement.
They acknowledged the need for compensation but insisted that it “must be done in an equitable and fair manner that identifies the failings in the response and clean-up operations of the Sri Lankan government.”
The X-Press Pearl was carrying 81 containers of dangerous cargo, including acids, lead ingots and plastic raw materials, when it caught fire.
Tons of microplastic pellets spilled into the sea and washed up on an 80-kilometre stretch of Sri Lanka’s western coastline, forcing a months-long ban on fishing and causing severe damage to marine life.
