Sea Views: IMO convention adopted

Following a conference held last week at the London headquarters of the International Maritime Org-anisation (IMO), a new convention on liability and compensation for pollution from ships bunkers has been adopted. The International Convention on Civil Liability for Bunker Pollution Damage, 2001, was necessary because previous international pollution instruments had failed to include bunker oil spills from vessels other than tankers.

Work on the convention began in 1995, following a submission by several delegations to the Legal Committee of the IMO. Experience of bunker spill clean-ups had clearly illustrated the need for an international regime, as did anomalies such as the fact that many general cargo ships carry more oil as bunkers than some tankers carry as cargo.

According to the IMO, it has been estimated that, on average, approximately 130 million tonnes of oil is carried as cargo on the world's seas at any given time. At the same time, the amount of bunkers carried in non-tankers has been estimated at 14 million tonnes at any given time.
Furthermore, bunker spills are considered to be more expensive to cleanup.

The convention is modelled on the International Convention on Civil Liability for Oil Pollution Damage, 1969, and as with that convention, a key requirement in the bunkers convention is the need for the registered owner of a vessel to maintain compulsory insurance cover and another key provision is the requirement for direct action, thereby allowing claims for compensation for pollution damage to be brought directly against an insurer.

Fairplay, Lloyd's Register in talks on merger deal

The possibility of the merging of the database and publishing operations of Fairplay Publications and Lloyd's Register into a new, jointly owned, company is being discussed in talks between them. A statement issued by Fairplay said that preliminary discussions had been encouraging and, on behalf of both companies, no further statements will be made until the present talks have been concluded - probably by the end of May. It was also clearly stated that the editorial independence of Fairplay Magazine would be guaranteed under any agreement reached.

Call for 'restructured' liner industry

According to Chris Welch, secretary general of the European Shippers' Council, "Consolidation within the liner shipping industry is, generally speaking, a good thing. It is a major answer to the question of ocean carrier profitability and, with the increasing globalisation of industry, the shipping lines are just reflecting positive trends within global commerce."

He was speaking at the Containerisation International Conference, on March 27, and went on to qualify his statement by saying that for the resultant cost savings and increased profitability to benefit both the shipping lines and shippers, there must be reform of competition regulations and a restructuring of the industry.

He went on to say, "Shippers are fully aware of the benefits of rationalisation, cost reduction, global presence, profitability, competitiveness and product enhancement. They are aware of it because it has happened to many of them. Furthermore, I believe the financial markets will demand this major restructuring, which many have speculated is long overdue, especially if investors are being invited to provide the investment for market consolidation and growth - but what concerns them is that regulations under which this happens must be such that take-overs and mergers are properly regulated. There must not be a case where one company acting as a monopoly, or a few in an oligopoly, control the market."

British Maritime buys Salvage Association

The Salvage Association (SA) has announced that British Maritime Technology (BMT) has bought it, effective March 29. The financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The SA, closely identified with the London marine insurance market, has been an independent organisation since it was established in 1856, but over the past several years it has, like other support service providers, experienced difficult trading conditions, having to compete much more strenuously for a reduced pool of work.

Consequently, the SA's committee announced in December, last year, that it would explore opportunities for consolidation by seeking a suitable purchaser, saying at the time, "The intention is to carry our services forward as part of a larger business, thus providing greater resilience and new opportunities. It is a natural extension of the commercial approach that has been developed over the last two years and it also completes the move away from dependence on the SA's members."

Under its new ownership the SA will be a trading style of BMT Salvage Ltd but with the old name unaffected, as will be the terms of the Royal Charter. BMT chairman, David Goodrich, who has now become the chairman of the SA said, "For BMT this is a strategic acquisition that we believe will make a significant addition to our overall capabilities while broadening our role as a multi-disciplinary consultancy. We take a long-term view. Like BMT, the SA has always valued its independence and we are determined to preserve its integrity while taking it forward commercially."

IMO in fresh initiative to check menace of piracy

In its fight against the menace of piracy, the IMO sent a team of senior officials to South East Asia, last week, to initiate the second phase of the organisation's strategy. In the first phase, a series of regional seminars and workshops were held in Singapore and Mumbai during 1999-2000. These identified a range of measures that could be undertaken to alleviate the problem and the principal purpose of the second phase will be to evaluate and assess the steps already taken, or planned to be taken, by governments in the region.

Among the key elements identified in the 1999-2000 meetings was the importance of regional co-ordination and this is likely to be an important area to be developed by the current initiative. Incidents of piracy and armed robbery against ships have been rising steadily in recent years, both in number and severity.

Armed gangs board ships both underway and at anchor, often injuring and occasionally murdering innocent crewmembers. The motives for attack range from stealing petty cash to removal of the entire ship and its cargo, often with dire consequences for crews who are either abandoned in lifeboats or, in the most extreme cases, killed and thrown overboard.

Frank Kennedy is a marine consultant based in Dubai.