The following article is written by Alvin Foster, Loss Prevention Executive, at the North P&I Club:

Quantity and quality issues regarding the supply of marine fuels, along with increasingly stringent environmental regulation, have led to complex, costly and lengthy claims and legal disputes. To help Members tackle these issues, North has published a new loss prevention guide.

Marine Fuels: Preventing Claims and Disputes provides helpful advice on how marine fuel claims and disputes can be avoided. Just as importantly, it also provides guidance on how to have the best chance of success when pursuing or defending a claim. 

This new guide will assist seagoing officers, vessel operators, vessel managers and time charterers in understanding what can go wrong when purchasing, bunkering and using marine fuels and what steps can be taken to prevent them and mitigate their impact. 

It explores the subject of marine fuels, from the production and refining process all the way to burning in the vessel’s engines. The nature and characteristics of marine fuels is discussed along with purchasing, contractual obligations, loading, handling, sampling and testing. The guide finishes by looking at claims management and the all-important collection of evidence. 

Marine Fuels: Preventing Claims and Disputes builds on an earlier publication, the highly successful Bunker Claims Prevention: A Guide to Good Practice written by North’s Richard Bracken and Mike Salthouse with fuel expert Chris Fisher. 

The new guide reinforces North’s long-held and oft-repeated ‘golden rule’ on resolving bunker quality and quantity disputes: “The success of any bunker quality or quantity dispute will depend upon the quality of evidence collected in support of the claim.”  

Quite simply, the party with the strongest evidence to support their claim is more likely to succeed. The new guide outlines the evidence needed to successfully pursue or defend that claim. 

Perhaps more importantly, this guide also rests on the belief that ‘prevention is better than cure’ and it will hopefully help to avoid or minimise claims altogether.

North Members and vessels on risk with North will receive a complimentary copy of the guide. Members should contact North if they require further copies of the guide which will be available at a discounted rate. The guide will be available on Amazon to non-Members at a later date.

Published: 18 July, 2018