Boskalis has bid to refloat Italy cruise liner wreck

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Dutch maritime services company Boskalis has made a bid to salvage the wreck of the Costa Concordia cruise liner, which capsized off the Italian coast in January, Boskalis' chief executive Peter Berdowski said on Thursday.

The vessel foundered off the Tuscan island of Giglio after hitting a rock on January 13, killing at least 25 people and leaving several missing.

It will cost "far beyond" 100 million euros to raise the 114,500 metric tonne (126,215 tons), 290 meter (317 yards) long ship in one piece, Berdowski told reporters.

"This is an operation without precedent. You have to imagine a big fat whale the size of a block of flats lying on its side, accidentally supported by two rocks," Berdowski said.

Dutch companies have a long history of carrying out similar salvage operations.

Boskalis salvage unit SMIT and Dutch heavy lifting company Mammoet raised the Russian nuclear submarine Kursk from the bottom of the Barents Sea, where it sank with 118 men in 2000. SMIT also lifted the Herald of Free Enterprise, the British car ferry which capsized in 1987 near the Belgian coast, killing 193 people.

It will take up to a year to remove the Costa Concordia, the ship's owner Costa Cruises, a unit of Carnival Cruises & Plc, said last week.

Six companies submitted offers to salvage the wreck. Among them are believed to be Titan Salvage, owned by U.S. group Crowley Maritime Corp, and Denmark's Svitzer, owned by Maersk.

Berdowski said Boskalis, and possibly some rivals, had proposed to refloat it whole, which is the more expensive option, while others had offered to cut up the lighter upper decks and refloat the heavier hull.

Insurers will play an important part in deciding which option is preferable.

German reinsurer Hannover Re and Britain's Lancashire have said they expected charges because of the ship's sinking.

The ship is insured for 405 million euros ($513 million) by insurers including XL, RSA and Generali, industry sources said in January.

SMIT is pumping out fuel oils before salvage operations can start.

(Reporting by Gilbert Kreijger; Editing by Helen Massy-Beresford)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/refloating-italy-ship-wreck-costs-more-eur-100-072501937.html

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