Court begins ConocoPhillips Bohai Bay oil spill case

A court began hearing arguments on the Bohai Bay oil spill incident, which involved the multinational oil and gas producer ConocoPhillips and the State-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), on Tuesday in Tianjin, three years after the incident occurred.

Twenty-one fishermen who used to own sea cucumber farms in Hebei Province are suing ConocoPhillips and CNOOC for 142 million yuan ($22 million). The fishermen claim the two companies failed to inform the public in time when the oil spill occurred at the Penglai 19-3 oil field, which had polluted a wide swath of the Bohai Bay including their farms.

ConocoPhillips said it had immediately reported the incident to the State Oceanic Administration and had carried out clean-up work. Also, according to evaluation reports, the oil spill did not pollute the marine area of the fishermen's farms.

CNOOC also claimed the fishermen have no right to seek compensation because the farms were illegal while some of the fishermen were not the registered owners of the farms. It also said that there is insufficient evidence to show the oil spill damaged the fishermen's business.

However the fishermen said tests on samples of sea water near the farms showed the presence of oil in the water and that the oil was the same as that from the Penglai oil field.

In September 2011, ConocoPhillips was ordered to suspend its production in the bay, following a series of oil spills in the oil field in June of that year. The spills were called "severe accidents" by the State Oceanic Administration as they had tainted some 10 percent of Bohai Bay.

It took three years to begin court hearings because ConocoPhillips was registered in Libya at the time the country was facing turmoil, China National Radio reported.

Jia Fangyi, an attorney who provided legal advice to other fishermen in similar lawsuits, told the Global Times that Tuesday's court hearing was a boost for other fishermen who are waiting for compensation.

He also said the fishermen deserve compensation whether or not they were farming legally.