On August 31, the Houston court in Texas declared itself competent to investigate Spectrum in the case of the Port of Beirut explosion, according to French magazine Challenges. This company is the target of a complaint by Lebanese-American victims, who accuse it of having played a decisive role in the unloading of ammonium nitrate in a warehouse at the Port of Beirut, in 2013. Seven years later, this nitrate was the cause of the gigantic explosion that killed 215 people and injured thousands more on August 4, 2020.
The court dismissed the appeal lodged by the American group TGS Nopec Geophysical, which acquired Spectrum in 2019. The court ruled that, in view of the evidence provided by the plaintiffs, an investigation was warranted because if the facts were proven true, “a jury could find the company liable.”
The Houston court’s decision explained that “since Spectrum was aware of Lebanese laws regulating ammonium nitrate stocks, particularly in proximity to residential areas, it could be exposed. Therefore, the plaintiff’s findings state sufficient causes of action against the defendants.”
In a complaint filed in July 2022 and revealed by Le Temps, Lebanese-American victims accused the company of having organized, in 2013, the chartering to the port of Beirut of the Rhosus, a dilapidated vessel containing hundreds of tons of nitrate originally destined for Mozambique. Although the vessel should never have been sent to Beirut, Spectrum sent it to Lebanon to collect bulky seismic testing equipment.
Once the ship arrived in the port, the 160 tonnes of seismic equipment used under a contract between Spectrum and the Lebanese authorities — with no apparent connection to ammonium nitrate — were loaded onto it. This unreasonable maneuver cracked and permanently damaged the boat. Consequently, the ammonium nitrate was unloaded and stored at the port of Beirut. Abandoned on site, it remained there until the tragic explosion.
This complaint is based on information provided by the Lebanese Oil and Gas Initiative (LOGI), which discovered that Spectrum had been awarded four (undeclared) contracts over 12 years, the most recent of which was awarded by the former Minister of Energy, Gebran Bassil.
Contacted when the complaint was lodged, a spokesman for Gebran Bassil denied any involvement on the part of the former minister. While acknowledging that he had personally signed the contract with Spectrum, “a serious company recognized worldwide,” he stated that the contract had generated “$48 million for the Lebanese state.”
For its part, Spectrum “vigorously” denied any involvement, explaining that it had carried out an internal investigation which would prove that the company “bears no responsibility for the explosion.”
“We are confident that we will win this case,” the company added.
In their civil suit, the victims are seeking $200 million in damages. According to Challenges, the investigation has already begun, but this procedure could above all shed light on the role of Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organization by Washington, and its local allies in the events leading up to the explosion.
Of note, Paul Naggear, the father of Alexandra Naggear, one of the youngest victims of the port explosion, told Ici Beyrouth earlier in August during an intervention with “Les rencontres d’IB” that Spectrum, the boat that is responsible for stockpiling all this amount of Nitrate, is being pursued in Texas, US.
