The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has published a variety of guides, templates and discussion documents aimed at raising awareness on contracting issues, promoting discussion and providing tools that may be useful for its contractor members, their clients and sub-contractors, the latest is the series is ‘IMCA Renewables Contracting Principles’ which can be downloaded from the Safety and Legislation section of the IMCA website at www.imca-int.com.
“Each of our Contracting Principles’ documents (of which there are now five in addition to a discussion document and other associated documentation) is published as an aide to clients and contractors alongside their in-house standard contracts and other industry publications,” explains IMCA Technical Director and Acting Chief Executive, Jane Bugler.
“As the international trade association representing offshore, marine and underwater engineering companies (over a thousand member companies in more than 60 countries) we have several roles, but view a key one as promoting dialogue amongst the various companies, both clients and contractors, for the benefit of the whole industry.
“The ‘IMCA General Contracting Principles’ were published in May 2011, followed by the ‘IMCA Decommissioning Contracting Principles’. The renewables sector is a relatively new one in the industry and consists mainly of offshore wind farm construction and cable laying.
“Whilst the ‘IMCA General Contracting Principles’ could be applied to this new sector, a number of issues in the renewables sector differ from general offshore activities and it was felt that these needed to be addressed in the contracts made.