Grant Hunter News

Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) will begin work on two gas-related contracts in early 2019, an LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) Bunker Purchase Contract and a LPG (Liquid Petroleum Gas) voyage charter party.A press release from the largest of the international shipping associations representing shipowners said that it is planning to develop the new contracts in Asia in an effort to further increase the involvement of its Asian members. Both projects will be developed mainly by experts from the region and managed by BIMCO’s Shanghai office, assisted by head office staff in Copenhagen.“An alternative fuels contract and a voyage charter for LPG are two key projects which have global resonance…

BIMCO has launched SmartCon, a new solution for editing contracts that is designed to make contractual work easier and more secure. “SmartCon is a brand-new approach to contract editing, we believe that it will significantly ease the work life of our current users and will attract new users to BIMCO’s contract universe,” said Grant Hunter, Head of Contracts and Clauses at BIMCO. The key innovation in SmartCon is that the features are built into a Word document, which will integrate and merge seamlessly with the normal workflow of shipping professionals and legal staff.

Now in its fourth edition, BIMCO’s best-selling contract has been updated to reflect contemporary shipping practice and legal developments in the offshore sector. It has a purer knock for knock liability regime and is more neutrally balanced than its predecessor. The first edition of SUPPLYTIME appeared in 1975. It was developed to meet the demand for specialist support vessels to serve a rapidly growing offshore oil and gas exploration and production industry. Since then, SUPPLYTIME has become the benchmark for offshore support vessel agreements – and the industry’s contract of choice. Ian Perrot, who led the SUPPLYTIME revision project team said: "Over the past ten years or so we have seen a hardening of the terms and conditions in charterers’ own contracts.

The ISCO-BIMCO spill response contract was well received at the ACI Maritime Salvage and Casualty Response Conference that took place in London last week. The contract is still under development, but is expected to be published towards the end of this year. Grant Hunter, BIMCO’s Chief Officer Legal and Contractual Affairs, who spoke at the conference said:“There was an encouraging level of interest from the conference participants in the new spill contract and its aims and objectives. It seems that people appreciate what ISCO and BIMCO are trying to achieve by working together to develop a contractual solution to improve efficiencies in sourcing and hiring services and equipment for spill response work on a global basis”.

Three of the world’s largest bunker suppliers, including World Fuel Supplies and Dan Bunkering, have joined a team of industry experts to review BIMCO’s standard bunker contract – BIMCO Terms 2015. Shipowners will be represented by Denmark-based J Lauritzen and Norden. Legal and P&I input comes from Clyde & Co and the North of England P&I Club. The initiative is supported by the International Bunker Industry Association (IBIA) who will have a representative on the team. BIMCO Terms 2015 are increasingly accepted by suppliers and traders around the world as a fair and balanced set of terms and conditions for purchasing and delivering marine fuels.

BIMCO and the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (GIIGNL) have today jointly issued the first definitive voyage charter party – LNGVOY - designed for the expanding LNG spot market. During the development process, BIMCO and GIIGNL consulted with the industry globally to gather a clear picture of how an LNG voyage charter party should work in practice. Careful account was taken of the interests of both owners and charterers to create a balanced and clearly worded agreement. One of the main goals of LNGVOY is to provide a charter party whereby the charterer can assess, with a greater degree of accuracy, the cost of transporting LNG from A to B and/or C.

BIMCO and the Global Shipping Forum have now launched a new standard contract – named “SERVICECON” – which simplifies and harmonises terms and conditions for container volume contracts between shippers and carriers. The new agreement is designed to meet the contractual needs of small to medium sized shippers, which, despite the large number and global value of the shipments they transport, often lack the legal resources to develop their own agreements with carriers. Following a two year period of discussions between carrier and shipper representatives, the BIMCO/GSF SERVICECON Standard Service Contract has been developed to provide a basis for container volume agreements. It provides a comprehensive starting point for negotiations and helps to smooth and speed up the contractual process.

Some of the shipping industry's biggest trade associations are modifying freight contracts to reduce commercial exposure for companies whose ships travel to countries affected by the Ebola outbreak and to protect crews from the deadly virus. Uncertainty about the spread of Ebola is adding to legal and financial issues for those involved in shipping oil, cocoa and minerals from the region. Last month, Reuters reported that individual shipping lines and traders were starting to tweak contracts to protect themselves. INTERTANKO, whose independent members own the majority of the world's tanker fleet, has now introduced an Ebola clause including stipulations to find alternative ports if there is risk to the crew. Charterers will also be liable for any costs if a vessel is quarantined.

BIMCO has today launched the Bunker Non-Lien Clause, aimed at reducing bunker suppliers’ reliance on ship arrest as a means of resolving claims for bunkers ordered but not paid for by time charterers, often due to bankruptcy. If a time charterer goes out of business during the currency of a charter,  owners can sometimes face a “double whammy” of loss of hire for the balance of the contract and then subsequent arrest of their vessel by bunker suppliers pursuing a claim for unpaid bunkers. Bunker suppliers are able to arrest a vessel (in some, but not all jurisdictions) by enforcing a right of lien or retention over the bunkers for the money they are owed, even though the owners, under a time charter, are not a party to the bunker supply contract.

INTERTANKO’s Documentary Committee endorses BIMCO's newly published standard contract for Private Armed Guards (GUARDCON). GUARDCON has now been in use for some months. During this time the Documentary Committee has reviewed the GUARDCON wording and, as the use of private armed guards has proliferated, has considered it against a backdrop of other contracts for the use of private armed guards. The Committee found that private armed guard contracts vary in content and standard, with some being unclear and/or unfavourable to owners. In some, legal rights and obligations of the parties are ill-defined. At the second Documentary Committee meeting of 2012…

BIMCO’s Grant Hunter joins Executive Committee of ESS Databridge Development Group. Addition of shipping documentation and contracts expert will bring further relevant expertise to ESS’s industry user group. Electronic Shipping Solutions announced the appointment of BIMCO’s Grant Hunter to the Executive Committee of the ESS-Databridge Development Group (DDG). An acknowledged expert on bills of lading, Grant is Chief Documentary Affairs Officer at BIMCO and is responsible for the development, revision and promotion of BIMCO’s wide range of standard contracts and clauses.

In a move designed to increase the shipping community’s awareness and use of mediation techniques in resolving disputes, BIMCO has developed a Standard Dispute Resolution Clause by incorporating a comprehensive Mediation Clause in to its widely used Standard Law and Arbitration Clause. A specialist BIMCO Working Group consisting of experts with particular expertise in maritime arbitration and mediation were responsible for the drafting work. The London Maritime Arbitrators Association (LMAA) and the Society of Maritime Arbitrators, Inc, of New York (SMA) provided valuable input and comment throughout the process. In shipping industry terms Mediation remains a relatively new dispute resolution technique, although it has gained widespread approval in other sectors.