Total found guilty in 1999 French oil spill case

By Thierry Leveque

PARIS (Reuters) - A French court ruled on Wednesday that oil giant Total SA was responsible for the 1999 sinking of the tanker Erika and ordered it to pay millions of euros in damages for one of France's worst environmental disasters.

Total, which chartered the rusting oil tanker, was fined 375,000 euros ($556,100) and told to pay a share of 192 million euros in damages to civil parties, including the French state.

Rina, the Italian maritime certification company that declared the Maltese-registered vessel seaworthy, and the ship's owner and manager were also held responsible. Eleven others, including the ship's captain, were found not guilty.

Total said it was considering an appeal and the firm's lawyers said the ruling was out of kilter with international norms on shipping regulation.

But environmental groups like Greenpeace and plaintiffs welcomed a decision which punished an oil company directly for pollution caused by a ship it had chartered.

"It is a very severe warning to careless transport groups, to the floating garbage cans that cross the seas," said Segolene Royal, former Socialist presidential candidate and head of the Poitou-Charentes region that was badly hit by the accident.

The Erika broke up and sank in heavy seas in the Bay of Biscay some 70 km (45 miles) off the French coast on December 12, 1999, pouring 20,000 tonnes of toxic fuel oil into the sea.

The accident fouled 400 km of beaches and shoreline, crippled local industries including fishing, tourism and salt production and killed tens of thousands of seabirds.