A Paris court found oil giant Total guilty of negligence over the 1999 sinking of the tanker Erika and ordered the company to pay $298 million in damages.

The money will be paid mostly to the French government, but also to various regional environmental groups, including Greenpeace. Total was also fined $550,000 for maritime pollution.

The Erika broke up and sank in heavy seas in the Bay of Biscay some 70 km off the French coast on December 12, 1999, pouring 20,000 tones of toxic fuel into the sea. The accident fouled 400 km of beaches and shoreline, crippled local industries including fishing, tourism and salt production and killed some 75,000 seabirds.

The French court also found the ship’s owners, its operator and an Italian firm, RINA, that certified the vessel guilty in the case also guilty of the accident.

The Erika trial was one of the biggest environmental cases to come to court in France, which gave hope to environmental groups that polluters would be held accountable for damage to the natural world as well as to business and economic interests. The case came to trial in February 2007 just when Total announced record annual profits of 12 billion euros.

Total said it was considering to appeal the decision as it was out of kilter with international norms on shipping regulation, said its lawyer, Daniel Soulez-Lariviere, the New York Times reported.

Ecologists welcomed the court’s decision. “This is an important signal to an entire profession; you can’t get away with using rubbish ships any more. No one will be able to escape their responsibilities,” said Corinne Lepage, an environmental activist and lawyer representing many of the 101 civil parties in the case, the Times Online reported.

“This is a moment of great happiness. This is unprecedented in France. It’s historic,” said Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, the president of the French Bird Protection League, which was awarded 800,000 euros in damages, the same newspaper said.