"Court starts hearing lawsuit over U.S. ConocoPhillips oil leakage case", 9 Dec 2016

The maritime court of Tianjin in China on Friday started hearing a case lodged by five local fishermen against two oil companies from the U.S and China for an oil spill in June 2011.  The ConocoPhillips and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation conducted cooperation in exploiting the Penglai 19-3 oilfield...where oil was spilled, polluting a sea area...The plaintiffs asked the two oil companies to compensate them...for their financial losses plus the cost of litigation.  They also demand a clean-up of Bohai's ecological environment.  According to a joint report...ConocoPhillips was the operator at the field when the oil was leaked, so all responsibilities should be claimed by the U.S. developer.  ConocoPhillips said in its statement of defense that the company had already paid one billion yuan for damages...However, fishermen from Shandong Province and Tianjin City...have not been covered by the compensation...It is reported that at that time there were 107 fishermen altogether from Tianjin and another 310 from Shandong filing this lawsuit that asked for a 1 billion yuan compensation.  However, the court didn't accept that case.  In 2015, the fishermen lodged litigation once again, and the accusation was accepted in the same year.