By LETRE SWEETING

Tribune Staff Reporter

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder said he would not reveal how much the government fined Sun Oil Limited for an oil spill in Exuma last year.

“I don’t disclose confidential settlements at the Office of the Attorney General, you know that,” he told reporters during an Office of the Prime Minister briefing yesterday.

It had not been publicly known until Mr Pinder’s comment yesterday that the fine was part of a confidential settlement.

In April, he said he could not disclose the fine because one had not as yet been finalised.

“I think that will be the first fine collected by the government of The Bahamas in an environmental matter since the passage of the legisålation, so a fine has been agreed with the parties in Exuma,” he said.

In July 2022, 35,000 gallons of diesel was spilt into waters off the coast of Great Exuma when a vessel Sun Oil contracted was delivering fuel.

A “breach in the hose” from the supply ship was reportedly responsible for the leak. Sun Oil chairman Sir Franklyn Wilson later said the company activated its crisis management protocol.

Meanwhile, Mr Pinder said that eight months after the Onego Traveller sank off Abaco, two-thirds of the vessel has been salvaged, but no fines have been issued.

“We can’t issue a fine without an environmental impact report,” he said. “That can’t be done until the actual completion of the removal of the ship. It has created some difficulty with timing in that they are now having to chop up that ship into very small pieces and bring it up on a barge, and then transport the pieces to shore.

“Unfortunately, that’s created somewhat of a delay. I think in the first instance, we were hoping that the process would be completed by July.”

“It appears that the pace is increasing in the last few weeks, and so we hope very soon that will be complete, so we can do our assessment. Needless to say, the environmental damage, if any of that has occurred, there will be appropriate action.”

The Onego Traveller cargo ship, registered in Antigua and Barbuda, sank on December 29, 2022. The vessel contained heavy fuel.

 In February, Mr Pinder said the government ordered the ship to be removed from The Bahamas within 45 days.