§2707 Recovery by Foreign Claimants

Summary

Foreign people, governments, or agencies can ask for money to pay removal costs or damages from an oil incident if they meet the Act’s other rules. They must show they were not already paid. They must also show that a treaty or executive agreement allows the claim, or that the Secretary of State, after talking with the Attorney General and others, has certified that the claimant’s country offers U.S. claimants a similar remedy. For a Canadian resident, that treaty or certification rule does not apply to the tanker case described below that took oil at the Trans‑Alaska Pipeline terminal (43 U.S.C. 1651 et seq.). Claims are allowed only for oil discharged, or a serious threat of discharge, in a foreign country’s territorial sea, internal waters, or nearby shoreline when the oil came from one of these sources: an Outer Continental Shelf facility or deepwater port; a vessel in navigable waters; a vessel carrying oil as cargo between two U.S. places; or a tanker that received oil at the Trans‑Alaska Pipeline terminal for transport to a U.S. place and spilled before delivery. A "foreign claimant" means a person living in another country, that country’s government, or an agency or political subdivision of that government.