Oil giant must pay millions for slick

Total was guilty of "carelessness" in chartering the Erika, a rusting 24-year-old Maltese- registered tanker, which sank in the Bay of Biscay, 45 miles off the Brittany coast, after breaking in two during a storm on 12 December, 1999, resulting in massive maritime pollution.

The Erika's 26 crew were winched to safety by helicopter but 20,000 tonnes of toxic heavy fuel oil – more than half the tanker's cargo – leaked into the sea, contaminating 250 miles of coastline and causing a major environmental and ecological disaster.

Up to 75,000 birds died as a result of the oil spill, which spread from Brittany down to the central Charente-Maritime region. Marine fauna and flora were ravaged, fishing, tourism and salt producing industries were crippled and beaches ruined by a thick oil slick.

Yesterday's judgment, which represents one of the heaviest fines ever handed down to an oil company in a major maritime disaster, was also hailed as a judicial first in France and is expected to set a legal precedent, as the court recognised there had been "ecological prejudice".

"It is a very severe warning to careless transport groups, to the floating garbage cans that cross the seas, often in total impunity," said Sgolne Royal, the former Socialist presidential candidate and head of the coastal Poutou-Charentes region, which was badly hit by the accident. "It's a big legal step."

The fine was the maximum penalty allowed under French law. However, the oil giant is expected to appeal against the judgment, which would effectively suspend the fines.

The verdict came after seven years of disputes and investigation, followed by a four-month trial of Total and 14 other defendants last year. All denied responsibility.

The trial lifted the lid on a murky world of offshore-registered tankers and labyrinthine ownership arrangements that made it difficult to establish responsibility for the disaster.

A group of 101, including the French government, local councils, fishermen, hotels and environmental groups, had sought 1 billion in compensation from Total. The French state won 153.8 million in damages – the amount it had demanded – while the region of Brittany obtained 2.5 million

The Erika's Italian owner, Guiseppe Saverese, and its Italian manager, Antonio Pollara, neither of whom was in court yesterday, were also found guilty and each fined the maximum penalty of 75,000. Both men had committed a fault by reducing maintenance work on the Erika in order to save money, the judges ruled.

Rina, the Italian certification company which declared the dangerous vessel seaworthy, was fined the maximum amount for a company of 175,000. The company had issued certificates without undertaking the necessary checks "under the pressure of commercial constraints", the court said.

The ruling also opened the way for Total to be sued by local bodies, including regional authorities and ecological organisations for the environmental impact of the spill, for anything up to 2 billion.

A year after the sinking, the EU introduced tighter regulations, including a ban on single-hulled vessels such as the Erika.

Total, France's leading oil company, is the fourth largest private petroleum group in the world.

The American oil giant Exxon is at present appealing an order by a US court to pay 1.27 billion in damages for the oil spill off Alaska from its tanker the Exxon Valdez on 24 March, 1989, considered to be one of the most devastating man-made environmental disasters to occur at sea.

The Paris criminal court did not consider Total as being only the company that had chartered the ship – thus making it untouchable according to international law – but that it was responsible for committing "a fault of carelessness" which had "provoked the accident".

"The message is that a society that sends garbage boats to sea must pay the consequences," said Dominique Voynet, a former environment minister who is now a Green Party senator.

Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, president of France's Bird Protection League, a civil party in the case, said he was delighted that a precedent had been set to defend the environment in court.

"I'm happy, because for the first time, French law has recognised harm to the environment," he said.

DISASTROUS OIL SPILL WHICH LED TO TIGHTENING OF EU TANKER RULES

THE Erika, a rusting, Maltese-registered tanker, broke in two and sank in heavy seas in the Bay of Biscay some 70km off the French coast on 12 December, 1999, spilling 20,000 tonnes of toxic fuel oil. The 26 crew members were lifted to safety by helicopter.

The tanker's fuel cargo began to sweep ashore almost two weeks later, polluting 400km of coastline and killing between 60,000 and 300,000 birds – the largest recorded number of seabirds to have been killed by an oil spill. Three months after the spill, a government institute warned volunteers cleaning oil-covered birds that they risked developing cancer and should stop trying to save them.

Total, the oil firm which chartered the 24-year-old tanker, denied responsibility for the spill, saying the Erika was certified seaworthy by an Italian firm. It also said it spent 200 million on the clean-up.

Following the disaster, the European Union tightened maritime rules, improving inspection of potentially dangerous ships and boosting surveillance along the EU's coast.