The twice yearly meeting of BIMCO’s Documentary Committee took place in Hamburg on 19 November. In his first meeting as Chairperson of the Committee, Belgium’s Francis Sarre presided over the adoption of several new contracts and clauses and an update of BIMCO’s extensive suite of bills of lading and waybills. Two new owner representatives joined the Committee from Canada and Brazil, reflecting the importance of the Americas in BIMCO’s global coverage of documentary matters.
In addition to the adopted contracts and clauses, the Committee also heard and commented on progress reports on a number of ongoing projects and agreed to start work on several new items.
LNGVOY
The first of the newly adopted contracts was the LNGVOY Voyage Charter Party for the transportation of liquefied natural gas. This document has been developed together with GIIGNL – the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers. It is the first standard form of voyage charter party specifically designed for this specialist trade. LNG has traditionally been transported on long-term time charter parties. In recent years a spot market has emerged and cargoes have been carried on a trip time charter basis. The objective of LNGVOY is to provide the market with an additional commercial tool for the carriage of single LNG cargoes.
SUPERMAN
Not the comic book super-hero, but a new contract for the supervision of newbuilding projects by third party ship managers. This SHIPMAN-derived agreement sets out the terms and conditions and scope of services when a third-party manager undertakes supervision tasks on behalf of the buyer. As most ship managers in the industry are already familiar with the structure and content of SHIPMAN, they should have no difficulty in using this new addition to BIMCO’s suite of ship management related contracts.
Novation Agreements
BIMCO is in the process of developing a series of standard novation agreements. The first of these to be approved for publication is the Novation Agreements for Time Charters. One of the agreements covers a change of owners and the other a change of time charterers. Work is ongoing to produce a novation agreement that can be used with shipbuilding contracts.
Bills of lading and waybills
As part of a project to incorporate a Himalaya Clause into all of BIMCO’s bills of lading and waybills, the signature boxes on the face of the bills and waybills have been updated. The changes to the signature box reflect the requirements of UCP 600 (the International Chamber of Commerce’s Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits). The bills of lading and waybills will be re-issued with these changes and with a new contemporary layout.
Anti-Corruption Clause
The Documentary Committee approved for publication an Anti-Corruption Clause for Charter Parties. Following two years work by a specialist drafting group a clause has been developed that offers a robust alternative to many of the often draconian anti-corruption clauses currently in circulation. The clause applies the anti-corruption legislation of the parties and the local laws at the place where the ship is trading. It takes a collaborative approach by bringing the owners and charterers together to find an agreed solution when a demand for illegal payments are made for services to the ship. Where delays to the ship may occur as a resulting of resisting such demands, the clause protects the owners from the ship being placed off-hire.
Dispute Resolution Clause
There have been few amendments to the BIMCO Dispute Resolution Clause in recent years. In 2013, BIMCO had the addition of Singapore arbitration and in 2015 the removal of the LMAA’s Intermediate Claims Procedure. A revised Dispute Resolution Clause for 2016 will be issued to reflect changes to the New York arbitration part of the clause. Notably for users of New York arbitration, there is no longer a mediation provision associated with that choice of venue. Mediation in the form set out in the BIMCO clause is not commonly done in the USA and so it has been agreed to remove that aspect from the clause.
SUPPLYTIME 2005
The revision of BIMCO’s most widely used time charter party is being conducted by a small group of industry practitioners. A preliminary draft was reviewed by the Documentary Committee, but drafting work remains at an early stage. Once a full first review by the drafting group has been completed, a “sounding board” of industry professionals will be formed to comment on the draft in support of the drafting group’s proposed amendments. The focus of the drafting team is not to re-write SUPPLYTIME but to improve the wording wherever possible and to make amendments that reflect current commercial practice and legal developments.
Standard Finance Term Sheet
Work on this important project is at an early stage of development. The large drafting team, which includes representatives from major ship financing banks, is confident that they will be able to present a preliminary draft of this indicative and non-binding standard Term Sheet to the Documentary Committee for their review early next year.
Offshore Structure Decommissioning Contract
Several new projects have been added to the Committee’s work programme following the adoption of the various new contracts and clauses. With a focus on the offshore industry, work will begin in early 2016 to develop a new marine services agreement for use in the decommissioning of offshore oil and gas structures.
Oil Spill Response Equipment Contract
Following a request for assistance from the International Spill Control Organisation (ISCO), BIMCO has agreed to work together with ISCO to develop a standard form for the hire of oil spill control equipment. Presently, each supplier has their own terms and conditions which often vary widely from supplier to supplier. ISCO is very keen to bring about a greater degree of harmony among its supplier members and has turned to BIMCO for help in producing a standard form.
BARECON
As one of BIMCO’s most well-known and well-used standard forms, the BARECON Bareboat Charter Party has successfully served the industry from the original BARECON A and B, through BARECON ’89 to the current BARECON 2001. After 14 years the BARECON form is due for a revision. The Documentary Committee has agreed that work should begin early next year to review BARECON and to look at the sort of amendments and additional clauses commonly applied by industry users.
Other items reviewed by the Committee include a first draft of standard Redelivery Clause for Time Charter Parties where the focus is on creating certainty around compensatory measures for late redelivery. A revised version of the North American Advance Cargo Declaration Clauses was also agreed. The updated clauses reflect the recent implementation of changes to the Canadian Border Services Agency regime.
Source: BIMCO
