Company: TEN-PE
Filing Date: 2025-04-11
Form Type: 20-F
Source: 0001193125-25-079101
Chunk: 85

Company: TSAKOS ENERGY NAVIGATION LTD
Filing Date: 2025-04-11
Form: 20-F
Item: Item 4
Chunk 85
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 Liability for Oil Pollution Damage, 1969 ("CLC")  

Many countries have ratified and follow the liability scheme adopted by the IMO and set out in the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage, 1969, as amended (“ CLC”), and the International Convention on the Establishment of an International Fund for Compensation for Oil Pollution Damage of 1971, as amended (“ Fund Convention”). The U. S. is not a party to these conventions. Under these conventions, a vessel’s registered owner is strictly liable for pollution damage caused in the territorial waters of a contracting state by discharge of persistent oil, subject to certain complete defenses. The liability regime was increased (in limit and scope) in 1992 by the adoption of Protocols to the CLC and Fund Convention which became effective in 1996. The Fund Convention was terminated in 2002, but the Supplementary Fund Protocol was adopted in 2003 and entered into force in March 2005. The liability limit in the countries that have ratified the 1992 CLC Protocol is tied to a unit of account which varies according to a basket of currencies. Under an amendment to the 1992 CLC Protocol that became effective on November 1, 2003, for vessels of 5,000 to 140,000 gross tons, liability is limited to approximately $2.6 million plus approximately $0.4 million for each additional gross ton over 5,000. For vessels of over 140,000 gross tons, liability is limited to approximately $66.7 million. As the Convention calculates liability in terms of IMF Special Drawing Rights, these figures are based on currency exchange rates on March 29, 2024. From May 1998, parties to the 1992 CLC Protocol ceased to be parties to the CLC due to a mechanism established in the 1992 CLC Protocol for compulsory denunciation of the “old” regime; however, the two regimes will co-exist until the 1992 CLC Protocol has been ratified by all original parties to the CLC. The right to limit liability is forfeited under the CLC where the spill is caused by the owner’s actual fault and under the 1992 CLC Protocol where the spill is caused by the owner’s intentional or reckless conduct. The 1992 CLC Protocol channels more of the liability to the owner by exempting other groups from this exposure. Vessels trading to states that are parties to these conventions must provide evidence of insurance covering the liability