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Beijing. Agroup of Chinese fishermen is suing ConocoPhillips for damages allegedly causedby a huge oil spill at an offshore field operated by the US energy giant, theirlawyer said on Friday.
Theearly-June spill leaked more than 3,000 barrels of oil and oil-based mud — asubstance used as a lubricant in drilling — off China’s eastern coast, drawingwidespread public criticism and warnings from Chinese authorities.
The grouphas filed a civil lawsuit in a court in the eastern city of Qingdao asking the Houston-basedfirm to pay 30 million yuan ($4.7 million) to more than 200 fishermen livingthere, Yi Jiafeng told AFP.
“Inenvironmental pollution lawsuits, we follow the principle of ‘inverseresponsibility of providing proof’ — the victims detail the damage and therespondent must provide counter evidence,” he said.
ConocoPhillipswas not immediately available for comment.
Environmentalgroups and local fishermen have accused the US firm and its Chinese state-runpartner CNOOC of initially covering up the spill, which was discovered in Junebut only made public nearly a month later.
But bothfirms deny the allegations. ConocoPhillips says it cooperated with authoritiesas soon as the accident occurred in Bohai Bay in northeast China.
“Anyrelease of oil, no matter the size, is too great,” it said in a statement onits Web site.
CNOOC,meanwhile, said last month all the leaks had now been identified and sealed,the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Thefishermen involved in the lawsuit claim they lost a total of 164,000 yuaninvested in clam seedlings and 17,000 undersea cages — only 3,000 of which hadclams left alive after the spill, the official Beijing News reported.
The StateOceanic Administration — the government agency that supervises and managesChina’s seas — has also said it will sue ConocoPhillips over the leak.
But anearlier civil lawsuit connected to the spill was dismissed by a court in thenorthern port of Tianjin for lack of evidence, the Beijing News said.
Yi, whofiled the lawsuit Friday, said it would take seven days for the Qingdao courtto decide whether or not it would accept the case.
