top of page
Writer's pictureSiddharth Mahajan

CLC'92 or Bunker convention?

CLC'92 or Bunker convention – which one applies in case of bunker spill from a tanker in ballast? Determining this is anything but straightforward as demonstrated by the recent decision of Hague Court of Appeal in The Bow Jubail [2020].

Ship’s hull was punctured after alliding with the jetty, resulting in 217t of bunker spill in port. Losses claimed against owners were €80m+. Liability would be limited to €17m as per Bunker Conv (BC), whereas CLC'92 would have provided adequate compensation. The answer hinged on one question – was the vessel free of residues of the cargo last carried? If ‘yes’ then BC would apply.


Court said it is upto the owners to demonstrate that. It placed a lot of emphasis on post incident survey reports. Surveyors representing owners had stated that vsl was clean. However, no inspection of COTs had been done & there were doubts about the sampling of slops being representative. As per the court the report did not provide convincing evidence that vessel was clean & it also noted that claimants’ experts had not been invited or allowed onboard. CLC was thus applicable.


For tanker owners in a similar situation - a joint survey or independent experts are needed to certify that vsl is free of residues if it has carried persistent oils previously.



10 views0 comments

Comments


Recent posts

bottom of page