Lawyers Propose Criminal Liability Against Those Responsible for ConocoPhillips’s Bohai Oil Spill

The adverse impact of “ConocoPhillips Re-production” has been exacerbated. After lawyers Tang Huadong and Sun Peng of Beijing DHH (Shanghai) Law Firm submitted an application for disclosing information to the State Oceanic Administration on February 27th. lawyers Mao Hongtao and Xu Hongliang of Shandong Deheng (Beijing) Law Firm submitted a Lawyer Proposal of criminal liability to be held against those responsible for ConocoPhillips China’s Bohai Oil Spill Pollution. This Proposal was made to the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the People’s Republic of China, strongly requesting the Procuratorate to initiate procedures for criminal prosecution of the relevant people.

According to the National Excellent Lawyer Mao Hongtao, the Conclusion from Joint Investigation Team concerning the Causes of Penglai 19-3 Oilfield’s Oil Spill Pollution of ConocoPhillips China suggests that the case of ConocoPhillips China’s oil Spill Pollution is a major accident. According to the Marine Environmental Protection Law of the P.R.C., Criminal Procedure Law of the P.R.C and Environmental Protection Law of the P.R.C., the responsible people in ConocoPhillips China who are suspected of a criminal offence should be held criminally liable.

CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation), ConocoPhillips China’s partner, is responsible for supervision and administration of ConocoPhillips’ oil drilling processes. In this event, did the relevant personnel of CNOOC fail to maintain responsible supervision and thus cause great property loss? As for the people of the Environmental Protection Agency who are responsible for environmental supervision, did they fail to maintain responsible supervision in this event?

Why did the State Oceanic Administration turn a deaf ear to the notice which itself issued and why did it not bring the Environmental Impact Assessment on ConocoPhillips Re-production to public Notice? Does the person in charge of this Administration have malpractice liability? For all of these questions the lawyers suggested the Supreme People’s Procuratorate promptly establish a case and hold relevant personnel criminally liable for the pollution.

Lawyer Xu Hongliang was indignant about this case, asserting that the relevant state departments’ failure to supervise and administer caused the Bohai oil spill pollution; it is beyond comprehension, he said, that the relevant state organs, including the public security organ, the procuratorial organ and the State Ocean Administration were so opposed to taking any action. It is really unfair and unreasonable that over the past one and a half years neither ConocoPhillips nor any departments have taken any responsibility, while many personnel or officials involved in other events which had incurred much smaller loss than this case have been investigated.