Taean oil spill

Taean oil spill (태안 유류오염사고/泰安 油類汚染事故) was about one-third of the size of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and was called South Korea's worst oil spill ever, surpassing a spill caused by the Sea Prince accident in 1995.

In the morning on December 7, 2007, a crane barge owned by Samsung Heavy Industries being towed by a tug collided with the anchored Hong Kong registered crude carrier Hebei Spirit (河北精神號), carrying 260 thousand tonnes of crude oil.

Key words
oil pollution, Hebei Spirit oil spill case, damages and compensation, volunteers' clean-up campaign

Oil spills in Korea
Since Korea, surrounded by the sea, has to import most of oil and gas, which it consumes, from abroad and is confronted with high probability of oil spills all the year round.

Sea Prince incident
On July 23, 1995, the Sea Prince, a Cypriot tanker of 144,567 GRT, was attempting to move away from the port of Yeosu to a safety bay to shelter from the coming typhoon. As it was partially loaded with 85,000 tonnes of Arabian crude, a fire broke out in the engine room. The incident caused a spill of around 5,000 tonnes of oil, which affected the shoreline of the Korean islands including Sori-do, the southern Korean peninsula and certain Japanese islands - in all, 73 km of coastline.

The next day the fire was put out and almost all of the oil remaining in the tanks was transferred into barges. When the weather conditions improved, recovery operations began with as many as 500 vessels mobilized to respond to the pollution. In addition, dispersants were spread by aircraft. The slick caused an estimated U$100 million in damage and took five months to clean up. This incident constitutes one of the major spills involving the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) Funds. Compensation by the IOPC Funds for this spill totalled U$48 million.

Worst oil spill at Taean
The Taean oil spill incident occurred near the port of Daesan on the Yellow Sea coast of Taean County. The barge was floating free after the cable linking it to the tug snapped in the rough seas.

Although no casualties were reported, the collision punctured three of the five tanks aboard the Hebei Spirit and resulted in the leaking of some 10,800 tonnes of oil. The remaining oil from the damaged tanks was pumped into the undamaged tanks and the holes were sealed.

Damage to the Nature
The spill occurred near Mallipo Beach (in Taean County), one of South Korea's most beautiful and popular beaches. The region affected by the spill is home to one of Asia's largest wetland areas, used by migratory birds, and also contains a national maritime park and 445 sea farms.

Contrary to the initial expections, unseasonably warm weather, combined with strong waves and unexpected wind directions, caused the spill to expand to nearby beaches and sea farms. On December 9, it was reported that the oil slick was already 33 km long and 10 m wide and 10 cm thick in some areas. It was also reported that at least 30 beaches have been affected and over half of the region's sea farms are believed to have lost their stocks due to the spill. Sinduri Dune, a South Korean natural treasure, is reported to have been saturated by the spill.

Although most migratory birds had not yet arrived in the region, seagulls, mallard ducks and other sea life were found tarred by the oil.

Response
The government declared a state of disaster in the region. The cost of cleanup has been estimated at 300 billion won (equivalent to US$330 million). It has also been estimated the cleanup will take at least two months. Hundreds of thousands of volunteers and celebrities helped to clean up the beaches in the campaign. In January 2008, the Navy deployed 229 vessels and some 22,000 military personnel to help clean up the spill, in addition to civilian aid.

The Taean office for emergency operations reported that ordinary civilians took up the largest portion of volunteers with 580,000, followed by local residents with 186,700, soldiers and policemen with 127,000, and public officials with 57,143. The emergency office said an average of 20,000 volunteers took part in the operation during weekdays and 3,000 over the weekends.

By January 2008, approximately 4,153 tons of crude oil spilled had been collected by utilizing some 268,710 kilograms of oil absorbents and other cleanup devices. Financial contributions combined to 27.76 billion won in donations, as well as food and clothing. Internationally, the Regional Oil Spill Contingency Plan under the Northwest Pacific Action Plan (NOWPAP) was activated following a request of the Korean government.

Five and 1/2 years after
On July 30, 2013, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said the coast of Taean County including Mallipo Beach has officially recovered to its former state. Pollution levels of fishery products like oysters and fish are now normal. Most of all, the ministry said, without the work of 2.13 million volunteers from around the country who came to clean up oil on the beach in the early stages, it would have been impossible for the area to recover within five-and-a-half years.

Statutory ground
The incident has been governed by
 * the Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage Guarantee Act (유류오염손해배상보장법), wholly amended in May 2009, and
 * the Special Act for the Support of Residents Affected by the Hebei Spirit Oil Spill Incident and Restoration, etc. of the Marine Ecosystem (허베이 스피리트호 유류오염사고 피해주민의 지원 및 해양환경의 복원 등에 관한 특별법).

The latter Act came into force upon its promulgation on March 14, 2008. Its purpose is to accelerate the recovery of local residents and marine ecosystem damaged by the Hebei Spirit Oil Spill Incident on December 7, 2007 by establishing and implementing prompt and appropriate patch-up and recovery measures. To this end, a special committee to handle oil spill incidents has been established under the Prime Minister, and an organization for the affected local resident might be formed. The representative of the organization may report to the Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, etc. and express his/her opinion at the relevant meetings.

The central or local government may pay a certain amount of compensation to the residents affected by the Hebei Spirit oil pollution incident on condition that it may secure a surrogation right to them before they are paid damages or compensations subject to the Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage Guarantee Act. In addition, if any assessment of damages does not take place withing six months after legitimate claim to the international compensation fund, etc., the central or local government may assist the residents by extending loans.

Who is to blame as to pay compensation?
According to the Wikipedia article, compensation was mostly paid by China Shipowners Mutual Assurance Association (China P&I) and Skuld P&I, which were insurers for the Hebei Spirit, and some paid by Samsung Fire and Lloyd P&I. International Oil Pollution Funds (IOPC) could be responsible to pay if China P&I and Skuld P&I became unable to pay for the cost or if the damages exceeded the shipowners limitation of liability set under an international convention.

On June 24, 2008, the trial concluded. The two tug captains were found guilty, while the personnel on the barge and on Hebei Spirit were exonerated. Samsung Heavy Industries was also fined.

After five years assessing the damage, the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) Fund accepted only 57,014 of the 128,400 compensation claims from local victims. They translated into only 182.5 billion won out of the 2.78 trillion won the victims sought, or a mere 6.57 percent. Victims who were either not covered by the IOPC's compensation or did not agree with the amount offered sued in a district court in South Chungcheong Province.

Compensation has been capped at 321.6 billion won under an international accord governing a global fund created to cover oil spills. The maximum amount that the insurer of the merchant vessel firm that owns the Hebei Spirit is required to pay is 186.8 billion won, and the maximum amount from Samsung Heavy is 5.6 billion won. The IOPC will cover 129.2 billion won. The government is liable to pay any compensation beyond the cap. Samsung Heavy has agreed to donate 100 billion won to a regional development fund out of a moral duty, but that will not be included in compensation for local residents.

The compensation battles of local residents are not over yet. Regardless of the court's decision, civil suits by individual residents may follow. In January 2013, the Daejeon District Court set the total damage caused by the spill at 73.41 billion won (about U$65.9 million), only one-fifth of 3.5 trillion won that the locals demanded.