Beijing vows to take action for oil spills havoc
Beijing issued a stern warning yesterday as the controversy over oil spills in the Bohai Sea drags on, vowing to hold people accountable and protect the interests of fish farmers affected by one of the mainland's worst cases of marine pollution in decades.
At least 5,500 square kilometres - an area five times the size of Hong Kong - off the coast of Hebei and Shandong have been contaminated by the spills.
They were first detected in early June but have yet to be brought under control, Xinhua said citing a statement from a State Council meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao. '[The spills] have caused serious impact on the marine ecology and fishery production in the Bohai Sea,' it said.
While the damage caused by the contamination was still being evaluated, 'relevant authorities must accelerate their investigation into the incident ... seek accountability in accordance with the law and protect the lawful rights of all parties affected,' it said.
Although it was the first time the top leadership had expressed its impatience at the stalemate over the oil spills, amid mounting public anger, analysts said it remained to be seen if it could bring an early end to the controversy and help disgruntled fish farmers overcome legal restrictions in claiming compensation.
Meanwhile, embattled US oil company ConocoPhillips said yesterday it will set up a fund to help deal with the aftermath of the oil spills amid calls for a criminal investigation into its role in the country.
The move by ConocoPhillips, the operator of the country's largest offshore oilfield, Penglai 19-3, appears to echo a similar initiative last week by China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the majority owner of the rigs. Both companies are facing possible lawsuits filed by hundreds of fish farmers and mainland lawyers who are seeking compensation estimated in the billions of yuan over the fallout from the spills.
But environmentalists and legal experts said the US oil giant, which failed to honour its previous pledges to seal the leaks and clean up the contamination, has yet to show sufficient sincerity in its latest commitment, which was 'too vague to be enforceable'.
A statement issued from ConocoPhillips's global headquarters in Houston, Texas, said the proposed 'Bohai Bay fund' was designed to 'address ConocoPhillips' responsibilities in accordance with relevant laws of China and to benefit the general environment in Bohai Bay'.
But the terse statement did not include concrete details about the fund, such as its scale and whether it would be used to compensate fish farmers for their losses and to repair the damaged marine environment.
Professor Wang Yamin, from the Marine College at Shandong University in Weihai, said the fund proposed by ConocoPhillips and CNOOC may fall far short of public expectations.
'Their proposal looks more like setting up a non-profit environmental foundation rather than the one specifically needed in covering economic losses of those affected and the cost of repairing the ecological damage of the spills,' he said.
