Dredger Los Olivillos risks sinking in Dénia after eight months without scrapping permit

The dredger Los Olivillos, moored at Moll del Martell in Dénia port, is listing ever more severely and poses a real risk of sinking, whilst the Maritime Authority —dependent on the Transport Ministry— has accumulated eight months without resolving the scrapping authorisation, according to sources from the Generalitat's General Directorate of Ports.

Those same sources indicate that the request, formalised on 2 February 2026, remains unanswered: "The Maritime Authority has gone 8 months without granting the scrapping permit".

Recent storms have opened holes in the hull and worsened the vessel's structural damage, raising the danger that it will eventually sink. On 21 September it was necessary to install pumps to keep it afloat.

The ship arrived at the port in 2019, at the request of its then owner, the company Arenas del Sur, arguing a technical stopover for repairs that was never carried out. In 2022 the company entered insolvency proceedings and definitively abandoned the dredger in the dock, and according to the General Directorate of Ports, the previous Botànic administration took no action; it was only under the current PP administration that, according to the same sources, proceedings were initiated to declare the vessel abandoned.

In February 2024 the Navarrese firm Las Machoras acquired the dredger to proceed with its scrapping, with an initial schedule of barely three weeks: one for decontamination and two for dismantling. Decontamination and tank degassing was completed in May that year, but dismantling was suspended due to lack of the technical project and de-registration of the vessel with the General Directorate of Merchant Marine.

The regional ministry argues that towing the vessel out of the dock without scrapping it first is not viable given its deterioration, which prevents it from sailing in open sea, against other alternatives being considered by the state administration. There is no record of a response from the Maritime Authority to the queries raised.