The company will also pay about $28,000 in legal and technical expenses over the incident in February 2020.

Its ship British Engineer was moored at a terminal at Largs Bay transferring Jet A-1 fuel to the onshore facility.

A pressurised liquid chemical hose failed at the discharge point, sending an unknown quantity of fuel onto the deck of the vessel and into the Port River.

SA Environment Protection Authority Chief Executive Tony Circelli said an assessment of the incident by an independent environmental consultant had supported complaints made by 16 people.

"After an investigation the EPA was satisfied that BP Shipping Limited had caused material environmental harm through the odours from the spilled fuel affecting the community," Mr Circelli said.

The EPA negotiated a civil penalty as an alternative to criminal prosecution based on BP Shipping's submissions of its good compliance record, having had no previous enforcement action by the EPA in South Australia.

The company took immediate action to clean up the spill and later ceased the use of flexible hoses for cargo operations.

Australian Associated Press