China to amass marine pollution compensation fund

BEIJING - China's Ministry of Finance (MOF) said Monday that the country will start amassing a compensation fund to be used in cases of marine oil pollution from July this year.

According to a regulation jointly issued by the MOF and the Ministry of Transport (MOT), receivers or agencies of mineral oil -- such as crude oil or heavy diesel -- entering China's waters should pay 0.3 yuan (about $0.05) per tonne they are carrying on each entry.

The fund's establishment is aimed at protecting the country's oceanic environment and promoting the sustainable and healthy development of marine transport industry, according to the MOF.

Compensation from the fund shall not exceed 30 million yuan for each oil pollution incident, it said.

A committee will be established by the MOF, MOT, Ministry of Agriculture and several other departments as well as representatives from fund-payers to oversee the management of the money.

The move came after oil spills in the Penglai 19-3 oilfield in Bohai Bay have polluted over 6,200 square km of water since June 2011, an area about nine times the size of Singapore, and caused huge losses in the tourism and aquatic farming industries of Liaoning and Hebei provinces.

US energy giant ConocoPhillips China, operator of the oilfield, paid 1.09 billion yuan in compensation for the oil spills while China National Offshore Oil Corp. and the Chinese unit of ConocoPhillips paid 480 million yuan and 113 million yuan, respectively, for environmental protection efforts in the Bohai Sea.