Byzantio Facts

The Byzantio is a 26 year old single hulled tanker, one of hundreds worldwide. These ships pose a serious risk to the marine environment. Helcom notes that between 1989 to 1999 that from the 14 accidents resulting in pollution from oil takers in the Baltic Sea, 12 of these were single hulled tankers. The Byzantio was involved with another tanker the ‘Vasilios´ on the 6th of April 2002 in the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean like the Baltic is classed as a ‘Special Area´ by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) due to its sensitivity and vulnerability to pollution from ships.

Byzantio is flagged in Malta a registry placed on a safety ‘black list´ by one of the worlds leading port inspection authorities, the Paris Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The ship has been controlled five times already this year in three different European ports (Gent, Eleusis, Dublin), each time there were deficiencies found. Last time in Dublin on August 9 2002 it was detained for 7 days for various faults, including lack of fire fighting equipment and deficient certificates for masters and officers.

The Russian-owned trading company ‘Crown Resources´ has charted the Byzantio to transport 53,000 tonnes of oil between Tallinn and Rotterdam. Crown Resources the same company that charted the Prestige. Crown was formed in Gibraltar in 1996. The Gibraltar office still provides logistical support to the company and is believed to have controlled the movements of the Prestige, which appears to have been ultimately headed for Singapore. In 1997, Crown opened an office in 33 Cavendish Square London W1, which is now the company's largest. In July 2000 the HQ was moved to Zug, Switzerland. At least five of Crowns Directors are British and one (Mr Joe Moss) is a former Gibraltar Government. Minister. Crude oil turnover increased to 21.5 million metric tonnes in 2000, up from 11.7 million tones in 1998.