| dc.description.abstract | In the second quarter of the XXI st century, accidental spills from offshore production facilities and ships are a major consequence of the world's dependence on oil as the primary source of energy needed to drive economic development on a global scale. The Exxon Valdez oil tanker, one of the pioneers of large tankers in international maritime oil transportation, struck a reef in 1989, spilling millions of gallons of crude oil onto the shores of Alaska's Prince William Sound, causing environmental pollution and habitat damage. 87 The second environmental disaster was the explosion and sinking of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig on April 20, 2010, causing a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 88 The Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska highlighted the need to develop international legal instruments governing responsibility and liability for accidental oil pollution damage. 89 Following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska, Congress enacted the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (OPA), providing that any party responsible for a vessel or facility from which oil is discharged or which poses a substantial threat of discharging oil into navigable waters, adjacent coastlines, or the exclusive economic zone is liable for cleanup costs and damages resulting from the incident (Oil Pollution Act of 1990, 33 USC §2702(a)). The OPA also authorized private actions for damage to real or personal property; loss of taxes, royalties, rents or fees and other federal or state government revenues; damage to natural resources; and loss of profits or loss of earning capacity due to the cost of public services. 90 On April 20, 2010, following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico, federal, state and local government agencies and responsible parties faced an unprecedented challenge. The oil spill continued for 87 days, resulting in the largest oil spill in history and the largest environmental disaster in US territorial waters. In fundamental respects, the existing international law of the sea discussed here predates the discovery of vast deepwater and ultra-deepwater oil and gas resources and the development of technology to exploit them. 91 In the wake of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the parties found responsible have faced both criminal and civil investigations and penalties. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill affected not only the ecology and citizens of the Gulf Coast, but also the courts in the Gulf. The United States government filed a complaint with the District Court in December 2010 and initiated criminal investigations against all companies involved. The investigations focused mainly on whether the relationship between company officials and federal regulators caused the Deepwater Horizon accident and whether environmental laws were violated. The cases also included claims under the Clean Water Act and the Oil Pollution Act. Investigators also discovered that the procedures used during the attempt to cap the Macondo well may not have undergone any formal risk assessment before being put into practice. The parent company and developer of the drilling site agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and pay up to $1 billion for restoration projects in the Gulf of Mexico. They also issued a notice filed with the court agreeing to pay all legitimate claims of the plaintiffs, regardless of the limits of liability under the Oil Pollution Act. But this was only the beginning.92 As indicated by both environmental catastrophic accidents examined in this short article, the jurisdiction of coastal states exposed to potentially catastrophic damages due to both supertanker accidents in international waters and production accidents, such as BP-induced oil spills of oil rigs and production facilities on the high seas, and state liability for damages to the marine environment, especially marine ecosystems, are of utmost importance. In terms of these approaches, this short article attempts to determine the nature and legal scope of "state responsibility" under customary international law norms, with reference to the Exon Waldez and Deep-Water Horizon environmental disasters involving international disputes. Using the Exxon Valdez case and the Deepwater Horizon oil platform explosion, which caused significant oil pollution in the marine environment, as case studies, this academic article analyzes the maritime accidents caused by oil traffic, especially in the Mediterranean Sea, which is a semi enclosed sea, within the framework of the international law of the sea, and examines the ways in which legal reforms introduced through subsequent legal international conventions can solve the problem of preventing marine oil pollution. In this framework, the Mediterranean region, which is a semi-enclosed sea, plays an important role in the transportation of Middle Eastern and Russian-Caspian oil and gas resources to the European and US markets:
• What are the accidents and pollution problems caused by oil and gas transportation by tankers in the Mediterranean?
• Considering the capacities of Mediterranean ports in the next 25 years, what should be the legal responsibilities of states and preventive legal measures to be taken to prevent possible oil accidents and environmental disasters? | it_IT |
