ST. PETERSBURG, January 25 - RAPSI. The North-Western Federal District Commercial Court has upheld a fine of 503.17 million rubles for an oil spill in the Kerch Strait in 2007, the Supreme Commercial Court reported on its website on Friday.

The court has upheld the lower-instance court ruling, while rejecting the complaint of the 1992 International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund.

"The cassation appeal has been rejected," according to the court, "because the lower-instance courts applied the substantive law requirements correctly and have not violated any procedures, which led or could have led to an erroneous ruling."

The fund, which was named as a defendant in the spill case alongside Ingosstrakh and the Volgotanker shipping company, contested the St. Petersburg Commercial Court's decision dated June 19. An appeals court upheld the ruling in October.

Dozens of vessels crashed in the strait in a storm on November 11, 2007. Over 1,200 tons of oil was spilled into the sea from the Volgoneft-139 oil tanker.

The St. Petersburg Commercial Court initially convened the trial in 2008. In August 2010, it opened separate proceedings over a claim filed by the Federal Service for the Oversight of Natural Resources. The service claimed 6 billion rubles ($192.6 million) in compensation for environmental damage due to the spill.

Three courts held against the claims from September 2010 to April 2011, stating that the damage was offset by the Krasnodar Civil Defense and Emergency Department, the Kerch commercial seaport, the Novorossiysk Emergency and Rescue Department, and BashVolgotanker.