State-owned oil giant CNOOC and US partner ConocoPhillips have reached a 1 billion yuan (HK$1.23 billion) compensation deal with China's Ministry of Agriculture over last year's Bohai Sea oil spill.
The US firm said the payment was 'to settle public and private claims of potentially affected fishermen in relevant Bohai Bay communities', and that it 'fulfils the objectives of the compensation fund announced in September 2011'.
The two companies also said 100 million yuan from Conoco and 250 million yuan from CNOOC would be set aside to assist in 'the recovery and conservation of natural fishery resources, environmental surveying and monitoring of fishery resources and scientific research'.
The agreement was dismissed as an 'insulting joke' by a lawyer for a group of affected fishermen, saying it was barely enough for the agriculture ministry to 'wipe its bum'.
At least 6,200 square kilometres of sea - six times the area of Hong Kong - off the coast of Hebei and Shandong were contaminated by the leaks in China's largest offshore oil field that started in June but dragged on for months.
Production on the Penglai 19-3 oilfield - 51 per cent owned by CNOOC but operated by Conoco - was finally shut down in September, but the leaks were not completely plugged until the following month.
Conoco came under heavy criticism from the State Oceanic Administration over its handling of the spillage, including for tardiness in releasing information on the disaster and the slow pace of cleaning up the environmental catastrophe.