§2707 Recovery by Foreign Claimants

Summary

Foreign people, governments, or agencies can only get money for oil removal costs or damages if two things are true. First, they were not already paid for those costs or damages. Second, a treaty or executive agreement with the United States allows recovery, or the Secretary of State, after talking with the Attorney General and other officials, certifies that the foreign country gives U.S. claimants a similar way to get money. The treaty/certification rule does not apply to a resident of Canada for incidents described in subsection (b)(4). A foreign claimant may seek recovery for an oil discharge or a serious threat of one in a foreign country’s territorial sea, internal waters, or nearby shoreline only if the oil came from one of these: an Outer Continental Shelf facility or a deepwater port; a vessel in navigable waters; a vessel carrying oil as cargo between two places in the United States; or a tanker that took oil at the terminal of the pipeline built under the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act (43 U.S.C. 1651 et seq.) to be moved to a U.S. place, if the spill or threat happened before the oil was delivered there. Foreign claimant means: (1) a person living in another country; (2) the government of another country; and (3) an agency or political subdivision of another country.