Rig owners and operators will be all too familiar with environmental protests against rigs where climate activists attempt to disrupt drilling activities. With increased global attention on the environment and global warming, the frequency of such protests would appear to be increasing.
Electrification of the Norwegian continental shelf (“NCS”) will significantly reduce Norway’s carbon emissions, and we expect to see a future increase in investments in electrification projects in the coming years. However, important clarifications from the Norwegian authorities are required in order to establish more predictability for such high value offshore grid investments.
The multi-billion dollar Gazprom-Naftogaz settlement shows how persistent resort to legal means can defeat apparently superior opponent.
In The Civil Aviation Authority v R (Jet2.Com Ltd, [2020] EWCA Civ 35), the Court of Appeal in London has recently given judgment on a dispute about disclosure of some of Civil Aviation Authority’s (“CAA’s”) internal documents and e-mails which CAA claimed were privileged due to the inclusion of their in-house lawyers as addressees. The judgment covered many points, but of particular interest was its finding on how legal advice privilege applies to multi-addressee emails.
Arbitration is the most commonly used dispute resolution mechanism in shipping and offshore contracts. Very often however, parties tend to spend little or no effort reflecting on the type of arbitration solution chosen, i.e. ad hoc vs. institutional arbitration. In this article, we will highlight the benefits of agreeing to arbitration under the rules of NOMA – the Nordic Offshore and Maritime Arbitration Association vs. ad hoc arbitration.
To meet the existing and future needs of the maritime industry in Norway, the Norwegian ship registers (NIS and NOR) have finally decided to permit bareboat registration in and out of the Norwegian flag.
Under the Norwegian Maritime Code, a shipyard which constructs or repairs a ship may retain physical possession of that ship until it has been paid by the relevant shipowner for works done. This retention right creates a security or lien over the vessel which has priority over secured creditors, and may therefore be of great value to a shipyard in incentivising owners to pay.
The Stema Barge II [2020] EWHC 1294 This judgment, handed down in the Admiralty Court on 22 May 2020, looks in detail at the scope and meaning of the 1976 Limitation Convention, in particular the meaning of the phrase “the operator of the ship” in Article 1(2). In determining the meaning of “operator”, it was necessary for the court to also examine the meaning of “manager”. This is the first time that the English courts have been called upon to consider this issue.
The CMA CGM Libra [2020] EWCA Civ 293 (Alize 1954 and CMA CGM SA v Allianz Elementar Versicherungs AG and 16 Ors) The Court of Appeal of England & Wales has recently endorsed the first-instance Admiralty Court decision that a failure to properly prepare a passage plan or to properly mark-up navigational charts to reflect navigational dangers, may amount to a failure to exercise due diligence to make the vessel seaworthy, leading to an actionable fault defence for cargo interests who had refused to contribute to general average.
What happens if a vessel has an accident involving oil spill and public authorities clean up, but wait almost three years before claiming the clean-up costs from the shipowner? Can the public authorities claim interest, and if so, from when and at what rate?
In its decision in the “Mineral Libin” (HR-2020-257-A) the Norwegian Supreme Court provides clarification on the mandatory scope of the Insurance Contract Act and the application of the general Norwegian Time Bar Act in direct actions against P&I insurers under Norwegian law.
For decades, SUPPLYTIME has been the industry standard time charter for offshore support vessels. However, in recognition of its broader usage within the offshore and renewables sector as a whole, BIMCO has recently published four new annexes for special tasks that can be incorporated into this popular standard contract.
