The Chinese Version of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund Handbook Series Released

On June 5th of the 47th "World Environment Day", the launch ceremony of the Chinese version of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund Handbook Series (hereinafter referred to as "Handbook Series") was held at the North Bund in Hongkou, Shanghai.

It is known that the Chinese version of the Handbook Series includes six claim guidance documents, namely Claims Manual, Claims Guide for Costs of Clean up and Preventive Measures, Claims Guide for Economic Loss in the Fisheries, Mariculture and Fish Processing Sectors, Claims Guide for Economic Loss in the Tourism Sector, Claims Guide for Environmental Damage and Example Claim Form. It is compiled by the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC Funds), a professional organization in the field of global oil pollution damage compensation, and China Ship Oil Pollution Damage Claim Center is specially authorized by this organization to translate and publish the Handbook Series. The handbook can systematically guide the victims of oil pollution accidents to file claims and provide guidance for them to take appropriate and effective measures to prevent and eliminate pollution and restore environment. With reference to the international practice of the Handbook Series, victims of oil pollution accidents can receive up to $1.17 billion indemnities.

Serious and major oil pollution accidents of ships often involve many major environmental pollution problems and a huge amount of indemnities. The final amount of indemnities of some internationally influential major ship-source oil pollution accidents, including "Erica" oil tanker accident, "Prestige" oil tanker accident, and "Hebei Jingshen" oil tanker accident, reached over several hundred million US dollars. The sinking of the "Shanhong 12" caused beach pollution in the Chongming sea area, and the cost of ecological environment restoration reached more than 10 million RMB. Once a serious and major ship-source oil pollution accident happens, many individuals and industries like tourism, aquaculture and clean-up will be involved in the accident and become the victims of oil pollution. Moreover, for the lack of the knowledge of claims and the procedure, victims of oil pollution, especially fishermen and aquatic product farmers, often blindly claim for lack of evidence and thus their interests are greatly damaged.

The advent of the Chinese version of the Handbook Series not only helps the victims of ship-source oil pollution to make claims effectively, but also helps the domestic insurance industry, the shipping industry and the judicial circle to further understand the international compensation practices for ship oil pollution damage. More importantly, it enables parties concerned to better deal with the compensation cases caused by serious and major ship-source oil pollution that might happen in China's sea areas, so as to control pollution, strengthen ecological restoration, and build a better world together.

Link:

Introduction of China Ship Oil Pollution Damage Claim Center: In 2012, China established the world's fourth ship-source oil pollution compensation fund with reference to relevant rules of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund. In June 2015, China Ship Oil Pollution Damage Claim Center was formally established to take charge of the acceptance and settlement of claim cases. The office is located in the Hongkou shipping factors cluster of Shanghai Port, the largest port in China, and provides claim settlement services for the victims of ship oil pollution nationwide. So far, as many as 316 victims of ship-source oil pollution have filed claims to the Ship-source Oil Pollution Compensation Fund of China. The Fund has paid for five compensation cases for ship-source oil pollution damage after deliberation, with a total amount of almost 22.1 million yuan.

In order to provide guidance for more qualified victims of ship-source oil pollution, the claim center has compiled the Ship-source Oil Pollution Damage Claims Guide, and released it publicly on July 4th, 2016. Qualified victims of oil pollution can obtain relevant claim guidance information from the website of China Ship-source Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (www.shmsa.gov.cn/copcfund/) or conduct online claim consultation on the "China Oil Pollution Fund" WeChat platform.

Case 1: The "Hebei Jingshen" oil tanker accident. On December 7th, 2007, the ultra-large tanker "Hebei Jingshen" was hit by a barge on the west coast of South Korea. More than 10,000 tons of crude oil poured out, polluting most of the fisheries, farms and beaches of the west coast of Korea, causing the oil pollution damage worth nearly one trillion South Korean won, and more than 200,000 claims were lodged  thereby. That was the largest marine pollution accident which caused the most serious pollution in the South Korean history. South Korean oil pollution victims filed a claim with the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund in accordance with the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund Handbook Series. Till now, 99.8% of the claims have been resolved, and the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund has already paid about 60% of the compensation.

Case 2: The "Prestige" oil tanker accident. On November 13th, 2002, the Bahamian tanker "Prestige" was broken and sank at about 260 km west of Vigo, Spain, causing a leak of approximately 63,272 tons of oil, which had a major impact on fisheries, mariculture and tourism in Spain and France. Both countries  implemented large-scale clean-up operations and preventive measures, and Portugal took preventive measures. Oil pollution victims of the three countries filed a claim with the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund in accordance with the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund Handbook Series. As many as 1,328 claim cases were involved.

By the end of 2017, the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund had paid Spain's claimant 115 million euros, the French claimant 5.8 million euros, and the Portuguese claimant 330,000 euros.

Source: http://zgsyb.com/