On Environmental Pollution Accountability of Offshore Oil and Gas Transportation

The report of the 20th National Congress of the CPC emphasizes the importance of ecological civilization construction, taking promotion of green development and harmonious coexistence between man and nature as the strategic task of China’s ecological civilization construction in the new era, and bringing harmonious coexistence between man and nature into the connotation of “Chinese-style modernization”. Environmental pollution caused by Marine energy transportation is a major problem in the construction of ecological civilization. In order to realize the rational utilization of energy and promote the construction of ecological civilization, it is important to prevent and control Marine energy transportation environmental pollution. Although the existing regulations have made provisions in principle on the subject of rights, the subject of obligations and the compensation for ecological damage for Marine environmental pollution, the operability in practice is not strong, which leads to problems in the current oil and gas transport pollution liability, such as lack of provisions on the subject of liability, unclear scope and difficulty to determine the amount of compensation. Foreign countries and regions have clarified the types of liability, limited the subjects of liability in a specific scope, and established a relatively perfect accountability system, which provides a reference for our legislation on Marine pollution control. The liability for environmental pollution in offshore oil and gas transport should be clarified, the scope of compensation should be determined, the limit of compensation should be specified, the Marine pollution damage compensation fund should be established, the consultation mechanism should be improved, and the national Marine pollution damage liability system should be improved.