Part VI Prevention of Pollution

Chapter IV International Oil Pollution

Compensation Fund

Supplemental

Jurisdiction and effect of judgments.

Interpretation.

C1181

1

In this Chapter, unless the context otherwise requires—

  • “damage” includes loss;

  • “discharge or escape”, in relation to pollution damage, means the discharge or escape of oil from the ship;

  • “guarantor” means any person providing insurance or other financial security to cover the owner’s liability of the kind described in section 163;

  • “incident” means any occurrence, or series of occurrences having the same origin, resulting in a discharge or escape of oil from a ship or in a relevant threat of contamination;

  • “oil”, except in sections 173 and 174, means persistent hydrocarbon mineral oil;

  • “owner” means the person or persons registered as the owner of the ship or, in the absence of registration, the person or persons owning the ship, except that, in relation to a ship owned by a State which is operated by a person registered as the ship’s operator, it means the person registered as its operator;

  • “pollution damage” means—

a

damage caused outside a ship by contamination resulting from a discharge or escape of oil from the ship,

b

the cost of preventive measures, and

c

further damage caused by preventive measures,

but does not include any damage attributable to any impairment of the environment except to the extent that any such damage consists of—

i

any loss of profits, or

ii

the cost of any reasonable measures of reinstatement actually taken or to be taken;

  • “preventive measures” means any reasonable measures taken by any person to prevent or minimise pollution damage, being measures taken—

a

after an incident has occurred, or

b

in the case of an incident consisting of a series of occurrences, after the first of those occurrences;

  • “relevant threat of contamination” means a grave and imminent threat of damage being caused outside a ship by contamination resulting from a discharge or escape of oil from the ship; and

  • “ship” means any ship (within the meaning of Chapter III of this Part) to which section 153 applies.

2

For the purposes of this Chapter—

a

references to a discharge or escape of oil from a ship are references to such a discharge or escape wherever it may occur, and whether it is of oil carried in a cargo tank or of oil carried in a bunker fuel tank; and

b

where more than one discharge or escape results from the same occurrence or from a series of occurrences having the same origin, they shall be treated as one.

3

References in this Chapter to the territory of any country shall be construed in accordance with section 170(4) reading the reference to a Liability Convention country as a reference to a Fund Convention country F1or a Supplementary Fund Protocol country (as the case may be).