태안 유류오염사고 피해사정 및 보상사례 분석연구 - 허베이스피리트호 사고를 대상으로 -

Abstract

The Hebei Spirit(a Hong Kong-registered oil tanker) oil spill was a major oil spill in South Korea that occurred in 7 December 2007, which has an ongoing environmental and economic effect. The accident resulted in the leaking of a 12,547 kl amount of oil. It is South Korea's worst oil spill ever, surpassing a spill which occurred in July 1995, when the Sea Prince oil tanker struck a reef, releasing 5,035 kl of oil in water. The oil slick was 375km long and it was also reported that 101 regions(59 regions in Chungnam-do and 42 regions in Jeolla-do) was contaminated by the oil. The government declared a state of disaster in 11 regions(Boryoung, Seosan, Taean, Seocheon, Hongseong, Dangjin, Muan, Shinan, Yeongqwang, Gunsan, Buan). Every oil-dry absorbents and clean-up equipments in Korea was purchased and millions of volunteers helped to clean up the beaches in the region. The estimated economic loss was over 300 billion won which is the maximum amount of compensation from the IOPC(International Oil Pollution Compensation) Fund. The purpose of this study is to analyse the compensation procedure and amount for economic loss from the oil contamination. The victims submitted more than 100,000 claims to the Hebei Spirit Center which was organized by the Skuld P&I Club and IOPC Fund. The Hebei Spirit Center is still examining the forms submitted by claimers. The review of the claim examining reports from the Hebei Spirit Center showed that the number of rejections to those claims was very high, but the compensation assessment was not enough. The rejection rate in claims for economic loss was high, especially in fishery, aquaculture, and tourism market. This is due to the lack of evidence that shows that they have suffered an economic loss as a result of alleged impact of the Hebei Spirit incident. The results of this study show that we may need to convert the private sales to the public sales in the fishery market in order to increase the compensation assessment rate. In addition, the retailers should prepare VAT statements, statements of credit card receipts and the record of daily revenue received, etc.