141m yuan sought as oil spills hearing gets underway

A Chinese maritime court opened a hearing on Tuesday in which 21 Chinese aquaculture farmers are suing two giant oil companies.

The farmers claimed in Tianjin Maritime Court that their livelihoods have been greatly affected by two oil spills three and a half years ago at the companies' offshore drilling operations in northeastern China.

The two companies are ConocoPhillips China and China National Offshore Oil Corp. The spills occurred in June 2011 at the Penglai 19-3 oilfield, China's largest and a joint exploration project between both companies.