Throwback Thursday: Oil slick unpicked; BSE liability

24 May 1990: £2m bill for Devon slick

Liability bills from the UK’s worst oil slick for more than 20 years should not exceed £2m, the insurers involved told Post’s Gavin Souter.

About 1,000 tonnes of Iranian crude oil had just spilled into the sea off the Devon coast after Liberian tanker Rosebay collided with Brixham fishing trawler Dionne Marie.

CU feeling under the weather

Commercial Union, now part of Aviva, was pushed into the red by the storms of January and February 1990.

The storms cost the insurer £55m, resulting in first quarter losses of £25.6m compared with £45m profits for the same period in 1989.

BSE fails to produce stampede

Post reported the “mad cow disease” crisis had not yet brought a stampede of claims from farmers, meat suppliers and food retailers.

John Murray of NFU Mutual pointed out product liability was difficult to establish due to the nature of bovine spongiform encephalopathy symptoms.