International Conventions around Liability on Offshore Oil and Gas Operations

Abstract

The diversity of location of many offshore units and the transnational nature of the offshore oil and gas industry have emphasised the increasing need for a close harmonisation of the liability regime between the applicable laws of producing States and what is stated in the International Conventions.Many maintained the need for an international treaty to cover pollution from offshore activities with particular reference to transboundary pollution and, thus, the current uniform liability regime on the subject was established. Offshore oil and gas operations often take place in locations that depend on tourism for a large part of their income, such as the Mediterranean Sea and the Aegean Sea. Sources of law on offshore units in the United Kingdom and Greece are considered, as it is of paramount importance to understand of how national legislations and courts treat offshore units or crafts in the occurrence of an event of an incident.