The American energy giant ConocoPhillips said it is not responsible for compensating fishers in Shandong Province for two oil spills in the Bohai Sea in 2011 because it already paid about 1 billion yuan ($160 million) to the Ministry of Agriculture, which was supposed to cover losses of fishers affected by the oil slick, according to a press release from the fishermen's lawyer.
In 2011, two oil spills occurred in Bohai, polluting about 6,200 square kilometers of the sea surface. After the accident, ConocoPhillips China agreed to pay the Chinese government which was supposed to compensate all fishers affected by the spills.
However, according to the government plan the compensation fund only covered some fishers in Hebei and Liaoning provinces, and excluded about 500 Shandong fishers who claim they also suffered losses.
The money is also being used to help the sea environment recover from the spills.
"It's not acceptable that the 1 billion yuan only covers fishers in Hebei and Liaoning but provides no compensation for Shandong fishers," said Jia Fangyi, a Beijing-based lawyer representing the Shandong fishers.
Jia helped the fishers file a lawsuit against the American company in a district court in Houston, Texas in July 2012, and the court has asked both sides to present evidence.
Jia said his request to the ministry for a share of the 1 billion yuan it received from ConocoPhillips has been ignored, as were requests to the local government for help.
ConocoPhillips has told the Shandong fishers it won't cover their losses as it had already paid the government to compensate all fishers affected by the two spills, said Jia.
Nearly two years after the oil spills, fishermen in Shandong say their scallop farms still have not fully recovered.
Wang Zhongguo, from Tuoji Island about 72 kilometers from where the spills occurred, told the Global Times that 90 percent of his scallops died after the spills in 2011 and he has lost some 1 million yuan over the last two years.
Jia said he expects the US court to reach a verdict in the case by June.