Core Marine, the company that operates the Sea Diamond, the cruise ship that sank off Santorini in April last year, has submitted a plan to the Merchant Marine Ministry to remove several hundred tons of fuel that are still trapped in the vessel’s wreckage.

For months, residents of the island have been pressing authorities and the company that owns the ship, Louis Cruise Lines, to pump the fuel out of the shipwreck as they fear that it will seep out and pollute the water. Locals recently began a protest outside Santorini’s tax office to press their demands for the wreck to be removed.

Core Marine said it was submitting the plan, which will be analyzed by experts at the ministry and the National Technical University of Athens, as a “goodwill gesture” and that this did not mean it was accepting any responsibility for the accident.

The firm pointed to the fact that a new map published by the Greek Navy in November indicated that the reef struck by the Sea Diamond had not been correctly marked.