Snapshot: Following a 2011 oil spill in the Bohai Sea in China, affected fisherman whose livelihoods were impacted by the spill filed lawsuits against ConocoPhillips in China and the US. While some of the Chinese lawsuits were able to proceed, the US lawsuit was dismissed by the US district court of Southern Texas. This case profile looks at proceedings in China.

In 2011, a subsidiary of a US based company ConocoPhillips, ConocoPhillips China, caused an oil spill in the Bohai Sea in China, which severely damaged the ecosystem in the Bohai Bay and greatly affected the livelihoods of local fishermen.  In January 2012, ConocoPhillips and its partner, the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, reached an agreement with China's Ministry of Agriculture and State Oceanic Administration to settle compensation claims in amount of 1.09 billion yuan in relation to fishery-related losses in Hebei and Liaoning provinces.  However, fishermen from some other areas, allegedly also affected by the spill, were excluded from the compensation scheme.

Proceedings in China

Aqua-farmers from the affected areas filed several lawsuits before the Tianjin Maritime Court and the Qingdao Maritime Court.  In 2011, a group of fishermen from Hebei and Liaoning provinces, who did not join the 2012 settlement process, filed a lawsuit in Tianjin court.  In 2015, the court ordered ConocoPhillips to pay them 1.68 million yuan ($265,000).  This group of plaintiffs was the first to have their claim accepted.  The same year, Qingdao court effectively refused to hear a claim brought by Shandong fishermen by neither accepting nor rejecting the lawsuit.  In July 2015, Qingdao Maritime Court accepted a case filing by a Chinese environmental NGO against ConocoPhillips and its partner.  However, the case concerns only the reparation of environmental damage and does not include compensation claims for farmers.  Also in 2015, after Tianjin court initially declined to hear a claim by a group of Tianjin fishermen, five of them refiled a lawsuit, which this time was accepted.  The hearings on the case started in December 2016.  In December 2016, Qingdao maritime court also admitted a lawsuit filed by 205 fishermen from Shandong province claiming a compensation of 170 million yuan ($24.4 million) and asked the parties to submit their evidence.

- "Court starts hearing lawsuit over U.S. ConocoPhillips oil leakage case", Xu Yaqi, Crienglish, 9 Dec 2016
- [PDF] Plaintiffs v. ConocoPhillips & China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Complaint for civil litigation, Tianjin Maritime Court, 30 Dec 2011