An Indian ship breaking company has bought the Exxon Valdez, the oil tanker responsible for one of the worst ecological disasters in recent history. "We have bought the ship from its Chinese owners," Sanjay Mehta, director of Best Oasis Ltd, said from Bhavnagar, in the western state of Gujarat.
Best Oasis is a wholly-owned subsidiary of one of India''s biggest ship scrapping and marine salvage firms, Gujarat-based Priya Blue Industries Private Limited.
Mehta would not disclose the price paid for the ship or what the company planned to do with it.
"The owners have yet to hand over the ship and have not given us a date," Mehta said.
Millions of litres of crude oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez on March 24, 1989, when it ran aground in prince William Sound, in Alaska, causing vast ecological damage in the area.
Exxon Mobil Corporation is said to have spent over 900 million dollars in settlements to thousands of litigants. The ship has changed hands and several names since then.