A call for a unified international approach to compensation under the tanker spill conventions has met a frosty response from Spain, France and Poland.
The move — prompted by a Spanish Supreme Court ruling that the London SteamShip Owners' Mutual Insurance Association (London Club) as the protection-and-indemnity (P&I) insurer of the 81,500-dwt tanker Prestige (built 1976) was liable for $1bn of compensation — stirred controversy at a meeting of the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) Funds last week.
