Calls for broader deal on maritime disaster liability

Date: 05/04/01

By Laurence Frost

PLANS to make oil companies pay for tanker disasters would discriminate against European firms and increase energy prices, an alliance of oil and maritime industries is warning EU governments and parliamentarians.

Oil companies and ship owners groups are calling on the Union to postpone the measures and wait for a broader deal under the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) that would provide a level playing field in maritime disaster compensation.

"This is an international problem," said John Hughes of the Oil Companies International Maritime Forum (OICMF), "so it's common sense that there should be an international solution."

He said the proposal to make firms receiving oil shipments liable for compensation would unfairly target states such as Italy - where oil is delivered and then exported overland by pipeline - and could also affect energy prices.

"It won't help prices if you have a sector that's confronted with a purely European-based compensation bill that other parts of the world won't be faced with," he said. European ship owners lobby CESA has also backed the call for international action to be given priority.

The proposal tabled by Union Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio establishes a fund of around €685 million to pay for damage costing beyond the first €315 million, which is covered by the IMO's International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPC).

The initiative is part of a second 'Erika' package of measures named after the Maltese-registered tanker that sank off the western coast of France in 1999, leaving hundreds of miles of devastated coastline and a €400-million clean-up bill in its wake.

The French MEP who is drafting the Parliament's position, Alain Esclopé, raised oil firms' concerns that EU legislation could hamper international progress at a recent meeting of the parliamentary Transport Committee.

Gilles Gantelet, a spokesman for de Palacio, dismissed calls for the initiative to be postponed, insisting that it would not interfere with the prospect of an IMO deal.

"If the international fund is sufficient we won't have to use the European one," said Gantelet. "We're talking about one of the major disasters of recent years - there's strong public demand for improvements to the system."

Plans to make oil companies pay for tanker disasters would discriminate against European firms and increase energy prices, an alliance of oil and maritime industries is warning EU governments and parliamentarians.