Tag: Standard Club

Philippines Supreme Court restricts crewman s claims

Safety Alert - The Standard P&I Club The Standard P&I Club has investigated the number and cost of navigational incidents over the past ten years and the facts are alarming at many levels. In the past five years, there have been 85 claims of over $1m of which over 50% were directly related to navigational issues. Of these claims, 42% were due to collisions, 32% were due to damaging fixed and floating objects such as buoys, berths, breakwaters, mooring dolphins and cranes, and 15% were due to ships grounding. Of these major incidents, 16% occurred when the ship was under pilotage.This is a significant figure and the inference could be that either the pilots are not well trained or the master and the bridge teams are not properly monitoring what is happening when under pilotage, or a combination of both. Only occasionally is the cause of a navigational incident a mechanical failure.This issue of Standard Safety is focused solely on navigation. Claims relating to poor navigation are the largest single cause of claims in terms of cost, and the club's experience in recent years provides ample evidence of this. A number of factors are investigated using case studies to illustrate ...

Standard P&I Club Further to our web alert of 20 December 2011, strict liability offences for the discharge of oil or an oily mixture from a ship into the sea by a master and/or owner of a ship has been extended to the charterer under new amendments to the Protection of the Sea (Prevention of Pollution from Ships) Act 1983 ("the Act"). This is a departure from previously settled law in Australia and many other common law jurisdictions.The bareboat, time and voyage charterers of a ship now face criminal penalties if an offence is committed, regardless of any actual fault on their part or on the part of the master or owner.The discussion papers surrounding the amendments are silent on the rationale behind this change, but the assumption of various commentators is that the rationale is to expand the class of persons who can be prosecuted and held liable in respect of oil pollution, thereby presumably acting as a general deterrent against pollution. While this is an understandable and laudable intention the extension is controversial given that charterers usually have little if any control over the operations and actions which may result in oil pollution.As noted in our previous web ...

Latest restrictions for EU The EU published Council Regulation (EU) No 36/2012 on 18 January 2012 with immediate effect in a move to further increase sanctions against Syria.The latest restrictions include the following prohibitions for any EU person:Importing crude oil or petroleum products from Syria or originating in Syria into the EUSelling, supplying or transferring new Syrian banknotes and coins printed in the EU to the Central Bank of SyriaDirectly or indirectly supplying/exporting equipment or infrastructure or providing technical or financial assistance that could be used for constructing power plants; further details are contained in Annex VIIProviding any financial credit or engaging in any joint ventures with Syrian entities which includes exploration/production of crude oil.Providing insurance to the Syrian state or any Syrian public bodies or corporationsDirectly or indirectly supplying/exporting equipment that could be used for internal repression (as listed in Annex I to the Regulation)Directly or indirectly providing goods and technology listed on the EU 'Common Military List'Directly or indirectly supplying/exporting equipment, technology or software as listed in Annex V and VDirectly or indirectly providing technical assistance/brokering services relating to the items listed in Annex V and VI Full details of the Regulation including the Annexures specifically listing the ...

Assistance in response to the incident The Standard Club confirms that it is the lead P&I insurer for the cruise ship Costa Concordia, which ran aground off the west coast of Italy on Friday. As well as supporting our member, we are giving the authorities full assistance in their response to the incident.The Standard Club insures the shipjointly with another P&I club in the International Group of P&I Clubs (IG). The Standard Club and the other insuring club will jointly share the first insured $8m of this loss, above which the claim is reinsured through the IG's pooling system and reinsurance programme with the London and international reinsurance markets.Media enquiries should be addressed to Amanda Pierce of Burson Marsteller (on behalf of Costa), [email protected]: The Standard P&I Club

Safety lessons for Ro-Ro operators The Standard P&I Club issues Alert regarding fire onboard RORO- passenger ship as follows:The club has seen many fires on passenger ro-ro vessels in recent years and the MAIB investigation report issued 11/2011 following the fire in June /2010 on the Bahamas registered ro-ro passenger vessel Commodore Clipper highlights a number of lessons that can be learned by operators of these ships.http://www.maib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/2011/commodore_clipper.cfmDuring an overnight passage a fire was detected on the main vehicle deck of the ro-ro passenger vessel Commodore Clipper. The OOW's initially thought the alarm was a faulty fire detection system, and the vehicle deck water drenching system was not started for 20 minutes.The fire developed in an curtain-sided refrigerated trailer and the trailer roof shielded the flames from the drenchers and the fire continued to burn. The trailers were tightly stowed; crew had difficulty gaining access to the fire and were unable to extinguish it.Unprotected cables and pipework running above the fire were damaged and the vessel lost power to forward mooring deck winches and bow thrusters, control of the rudders was disrupted. Loose cargo partially blocked the deck drains and drencher water caused the ship to list. Drenching was stopped while ...

The latest attack on a tanker occurred last week 60 miles off Port Harcourt Although the world's focus is on the pirate attacks in the Somali Basin and Gulf of Aden attacks are still being recorded off West Africa, Nigeria in particular. There are significant differences between the two regions; Nigeria is a governed democracy and has one of the largest militaries on the African continent.The latest attack on a tanker occurred last week 60 miles off Port Harcourt where the Nigerian military presence is heaviest. The ship was hijacked and held until reportedly released on the 5 November 2011.Previously the Standard Club has warned of piracy attacks off West Africa and Nigeria in particular and previous advice has been to keep well offshore - over 50 miles has been given as a reasonable distance.However this would now appear to be insufficient and pirates are ranging further offshore and coastwise transiting ships should bear this in mind. Managers and owners should take precautions when trading in these areas and provide ships with appropriate advice and guidance.Source: The Standard P&I Club

20 October 2011 The IMB has revealed in its latest global piracy report that in the first nine months piracy has risen to record levels, with Somali pirates responsible for nearly 60% of the 352 attacks reported, even though more Somali piracy attacks are being prevented by better anti-piracy measures, including the use of the Best Management Practices ver 4 (BMP4)and better naval responses.In the first nine months this year pirates have captured 625 seafarers hostage worldwide; eight people have been killed by pirates in this period. Although piracy in the Red Sea , Gulf of Aden and Somali basin is the obvious area of concern the incidents of piracy off the coasts of certain West African and South East Asian countries should not be forgotten. These attacks would appear to be also on the increase. Presently off West Africa attacks off Benin, Togo, Guinea, Democratic Rep Congo and Nigeria are of concern. Attacks off Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore Straits are also worrying. The West African coast off Benin has seen an unprecedented increase in piracy with 19 attacks leading to eight tanker hijackings this year.Ships anchored in /off or approaching the ports of Chittagong, Cochin: Indonesian ports of Belawan, ...

Japan Update The situation in Fukushima is still, at present, a cause for concern. Merchant shipping operating within Japanese waters are recommended to adhere to the navigational warnings broadcasted by Japanese authorities including monitoring all NAVAREA warnings issued through marine radio broadcasts, NAVTEX transmissions and satellite communications.The Government of Japan is still enforcing a mandatory exclusion zone around the damaged nuclear facility at Fukushima with a radius extending 20 kilometres seaward from the facility. However, certain flag states including Australia are stating that merchant shipping should avoid the facility with an cautionary zone extending seaward from the facility by a minimum of 30 kilometres.It is known that certain shipping companies have imposed their own cautionary zone for their ships in excess of 100 kilometres. It is recommended that ships should comply as a minimum with their own flag state's guidance and that of the Japanese authorities.The Japanese authorities are continuing to monitor radiation levels within Tokyo Bay as well as those surrounding ports in Japan. A copy of up to date radiation levels can be found attached to this email. At present, the radiation levels appear to be within safe limits and currently there are no travel restrictions for aviation ...

The safe and correct carraige of seedcake cargo The Standard P&I Club issues the Standard Cargo Carriage of Seedcake.This edition of Standard Cargo addresses the safe and correct carraige of seedcake cargo. Due to their oil and moisture content, this cargo can present a significant fire risk due to self-heating and spontaneous combustion therefore: the procedures described here should be followed in order to prevent such casualties.For more information, click here.Source: The Standard P&I Club