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Shipowner, insurer settle for $17 million after tanker damages reef - Business Insurance Skip to content Register for free Search Search Log In Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Risk Management Cyber Risks Pricing Trends Mergers & Acquisitions Technology Sponsored Content WSIA RISKWORLD Workers Comp & Safety Workers Comp Cost Control Pain Management Workplace Safety International EMEA Asia-Pacific Latin America People Events BI Intelligence Top 100 Agents & Brokers Best Places to Work 2025 Lists Directories Insurance Pricing BI Stock Index Magazine Current Issue Past Issues Subscribe Women to Watch ALL INsurance Resources Risk Perspectives Sponsored Content Webinars White Papers Shipowner, insurer settle for $17 million after tanker damages reef by Richard Sine Marine , Pollution May 8, 2026 A German shipowner and insurer have paid $17 million to settle a long-running case involving an oil tanker that ran aground off Puerto Rico nearly two decades ago. The insurer, Shipowners Insurance & Guaranty, known as SigCo, said the settlement “preserves the proper protections for vessel interests and their insurers in this highly litigious area of maritime liability.” In addition, it preserves incentives to protect the environment, the insurer said. Bermuda-based SigCo paid $7.7 million, including $6.4 million to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the rest to the Northern Pacific Fisheries Commission, SigCo confirmed. The rest was paid by the shipowner, Hamburg-based Jacob – The Shipping Group. Jacob did not respond to a request for comment. The case stems from a 2006 incident, when a 748-foot double-hulled tanker carrying more than 300,000 barrels of fuel oil went aground on a reef about three miles off the coast of Puerto Rico. No oil spilled, but the Coast Guard’s response efforts — deploying booms and freeing the vessel — destroyed or destabilized nearly 7,000 square meters of coral reef. The U.S. government ultimately sought nearly $36 million in natural resource damages under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 from the operator and its insurer. In October 2025, a federal appeals court ruled that a lower court used the wrong legal standard when it found the shipowner and insurer liable for environmental damages. The Coast Guard’s on-scene coordinator had determined that the grounding posed a “substantial threat of discharge of oil,” a threshold requirement for liability under the OPA. The district court said it therefore only had to determine that the Coast Guard’s determination was not “arbitrary and capricious,” a standard used in court review of agency decisions. The appeals court said the OPA did not delegate authority to the agency to make the substantial threat determination. Instead, that determination had to be proven by a preponderance of the evidence like any other fact in a civil case. “The U.S. government tried to coerce $40 million of liability for a supposed ‘substantial threat,’ without having to prove its claims,” SigCo said in its statement. “SIGCo vindicated the rule of law by overturning that effort, to the benefit of the whole maritime industry. SigCo president Neil Clemens said NOAA would use the funds for reef restoration. 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