Insured losses as a result of the grounding of the Costa Concordia near the island of Giglio off the western coast of Italy on the evening of January 13 are likely to be in the region of $500m to $1bn, making it in absolute terms the largest ever marine loss, according to Joy Ferneyhough, insurance analyst at Espirito Santo Investment Bank. Insured losses as a result of the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989 were put at about $500m. Florida based Carnival Corp, the London and New York-listed owner of Costa Concordia, said this morning that it had a $30m deductible for damage to the vessel, which is valued at about $510m. It is likely to be either a total loss or out of service for at least the rest of the year. The captain of the Costa Concordia, 52-year-old Francesco Schettino of Naples, has been arrested on charges of manslaughter, causing the accident and of abandoning ship. Should he be found guilty, the hull underwriters could seek to reclaim their losses from the liability insurers. Carnival Corp said that its third-party personal injury liability was subject to an additional $10m deductible, while The Standard Club confirmed this morning that it was the lead P&I insurer for the vessel. Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore reported that the ship had up to $3bn in liability cover for passengers and crew. If this is the case, much of the ultimate loss could feed through to the major reinsurers. The Standard Club reported free reserves of $317m in the 12 months to February 20 2011, on premium income of $266m, on 123m gross tonnes of shipping. The insurance of the ship was brokered by Aon, according to a local newspaper report, and cover was reportedly spread widely. Generali, RSA Insurance and XL Group were said by Bloomberg to be three of the underwriters, citing three unnamed sources with knowledge of the policies. RSA Insurance's net loss was said to be likely to be mid single-digit millions of euros. XL Group was reported to be the lead underwriter for the vessel at Lloyd's. Carnival self-insures for the loss of use of the 114,500 tonne vessel, leading the company to estimate the impact to 2011-12 earnings to be in the region of $85m to $95m, although it warned that there could be other associated costs, and one analysts said that the total cost to the company could be in the region of $190m to $200m, some 10% of 2010 profits. Its share price was off 18% at £18.52 in morning trades. Carnival accounts for about half of the global cruise line business, including P&O and Cunard. Costa Concordia was carrying 4,229 passengers and crew, of whom about 3,200 were passengers.