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Handl, Gunther --- "Allocating transboundary loss from offshore oil and gas accidents" [2019] ELECD 1450; in Handl, Gunther; Svendsen, Kristoffer (eds), "Managing the Risk of Offshore Oil and Gas Accidents" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2019) 253

Book Title: Managing the Risk of Offshore Oil and Gas Accidents

Editor(s): Handl, Günther; Svendsen, Kristoffer

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Section: Chapter 6

Section Title: Allocating transboundary loss from offshore oil and gas accidents

Author(s): Handl, Günther

Number of pages: 32

Abstract/Description:

This chapter assesses the need for, and the prospects of, a new international legal instrument establishing binding rules on liability and compensation governing transboundary losses from offshore oil and gas accidents. After rejecting the 2017 IMO-endorsed guidance document on offshore liability and compensation as wholly inadequate, the chapter highlights the civil liability nature of the instrument it proposes instead. Specifically, it focuses on the key elements that directly bear on the availability of funds adequate to meet potential liabilities, including likely damages associated with catastrophic accidents of the Deepwater Horizon category. It advocates a multi-tier approach to compensation, which beyond offshore operators’/licensees’ liability as the first tier, would feature a supplementary or secondary level of compensation in the form of a compensation fund as well as the source state’s financial intervention as an insurer of last resort, as necessary.