Visitors to this site have their attention drawn to the above Code and the ever increasing number of bulletins and notices which are being issued by various parties including P & I Clubs concerning the dangers of carrying cargoes which are at risk of liquefaction.

Without wishing to labour the point, in just two months of 2010 (October and November) three vessels sank during the carriage of nickel ore from Indonesia to China with the loss of 44 lives.

The attention of those involved in the chain of exporting cargoes like nickel ore and iron ore fines and other concentrates is drawn to the importance of understanding the issues around Transportable Moisture Limit (TML).

Attention is drawn to the new regime of personal property security under PPSA.

This introduces significant changes to the current law and practice in relation to personal property securities including the registration of securities in respect of ships.

Clients involved in lending, hiring or otherwise dealing with personal property including ships need to be aware that they may be affected by this new legislation.

At the moment the registration commencement time for the Personal Property Securities Act will be Monday 30th January, 2012.

Lessons learnt from our involvement in printed Charterparty forms in the offshore oil and gas exploration, development and production fields and project infrastructure fields indicate the importance of careful attention in the following particular areas:

• Mobilisation and demobilisation charges and when the daily time charter hire rate is to commence and finish.
• Early termination fees and whether early termination right in relatively short term fixtures is appropriate.
• Oil pollution responsibility when emanating from a vessel not subject of the charter and the scope of charterer's indemnity in such circumstances.
• Where barges are time chartered with a tug as a single unit and the effect of this under the knock for knock regime.
• Strict compliance for vessels and their manning with project specific requirements and implication for commencement and suspension of hire.

There is usually a provision in time charters that charterers are responsible for the standard and quality of bunkers.

In many cases it is a matter of relying upon the Owner's connections to arrange the bunkers without having the opportunity to be involved in this decision and necessary testing.

MARPOL Annex VI makes it important for charterers to now take a greater responsibility and activity in bunker management to ensure compliance. If there is no compliance and a prosecution results under MARPOL then it may be the case that an indemnity could be sought from the time charterer.

Recently we have observed, particularly with additional clauses to printed forms of Charterparties the very wide effect of the Force Majeure or similar clauses. This is particularly so with voyage charters with the consequent, usually unintended effect on the Owner/disponent owners ability to claim demurrage. Owners/disponent owners are advised to check these provisions particularly if trading to ports likely to suffer congestion, weather, delays etc.

31st December, 2011 - Graeme Macnish has retired after 31 years practice at the firm as one of the founding partners. We wish him well in his retirement.

Clients are referred to this important decision concerning causation in asbestosis cases where claimant has a history of smoking together with exposure to asbestos. In a unanimous judgement the High Court ruled that exposure to asbestos dust can cause cancer did not show that it did cause cancer. This authority is supportive of the arguement which shipowner defendants have made in many similar cases in the past.

We have represented various shipowners, charterers and engineering groups in relation to commercial maritime work associated with the $43 Billion Gorgon Gas Project off the Western Australian Pilbara.

Completion and Handover of the Western Australian Government Floating Dry Dock on February 10.  Australian Marine Complex Henderson Western Australia.

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The firm acted for the state Government body Landcorp in negotiating the ship building contract and supporting performance security and finance documentation.  The Dry Dock was constructed partly in Vietnam and completed after delivery by heavy lift ship to Henderson. It will service the dry dock needs of the Australian Navy fleet of submarines and frigates and be available for local commercial shipping.  The Dry Dock will be a registered Australian Ship and is expected to be extensively used by vessels operating in the states vigorously developing offshore oil and gas fields in our North West and iron ore export ports.

We represented the owners of the "LNG Pioneer" and their P&I association in matters associated with the rescue at sea of 29 refugee survivors who were subsequently taken to Christmas Island at the direction of the Australian Government.

LNG Pioneer

We represent owners and Master of this vessel in an Australian Fisheries Management prosecution alleging fishing in Indonesian waters.  This involves consideration of UNCLOS as to whether Australian domestic law can rely upon Indonesia law as a basis for a charge.