A Spanish court has established the huge amount of compensation to be paid for the Prestige disaster in 2002.
The 1976-built tanker broke in two and sank off Galicia while it was being towed away from the coast, spilling more than 50,000 tonnes of crude that reached beaches - the Iberian peninsula's worst environmental disaster.
AFP reported that the A Coruna court awarded the Spanish government EUR 1.573bn ($1.86bn), with EUR 1.8m due to the region of Galicia and EUR 61m to France, in addition to other amounts for other organisations and individuals.
The amounts are owed by Prestige's captain Apostolos Mangouras and the London Steam-Ship Owners' Mutual Insurance Association (London Club), up to a limit of $1bn.
The rest must come from the owner, Mare Shipping, and the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds (IOPC Funds).
The London Club said it was aware of the Spanish judgement and added it remained "concerned at the direction that the Spanish Court has taken generally, including in respect of the international CLC Convention."
"The London Club look forward to clarification of and the opportunity to study the findings in more detail before making further comment.’
Damage from the spill has been estimated at EUR 4.3bn.
TradeWinds has reported there was a EUR 22.8m limit of liability under the 1992 Civil Liability Convention (CLC).
But Spain's threat this year to press ahead with a demand for $1bn compensation from the London Club led to a call for consistency in the way international conventions are applied.
The International Group (IG), the organisation linking the 13 leading protection-and-indemnity (P&I) clubs, is joining forces with the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) to press for more uniformity in turning conventions into national laws and subsequent legal interpretations.
