IN THIS ISSUE
1. Deepwater Horizon Consent Decree
2. Allianz Annual Shipping and Safety Review
3. LMAA Seminar in Singapore
4. Panama Papers
5. Winter Has Come: the State of Steel in China
6. People and Places
Situation Vacant
Our reader is seeking to employ an English qualified lawyer to join
a growing marine insurance team. The company has
offices in both Asia and London and has a well-established business
portfolio of Asian ship operators.
In order to supplement the legal advice platform that the company already
provides to its ship operating clients it is the company’s wish
to hire a further member of staff with a marine legal background, experienced
in dealing with the full
gamut of contractual and liability issues that the operator clients
may face. The successful candidate should be able to
show that they are experienced in dealing with both P&I and FD&D
insurances.
"What we can offer are working hours and conditions to suit you,
whatever your circumstances may be. Occasional overseas business trips
may be required.
We are happy to consider applicants based in either Asia or the UK,
of any age, working on either a full-time or part-time
basis, and can offer the flexibility to suit individual needs. Working
from home offers no barrier.
If such a position is of interest to you then you can contact the editor,
describing your experience, at the following email
address:-
Any interest will be dealt with in complete confidence.
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FOB Network News
The current count of Members is 3874.
Our newsfeed on the site is courtesy of Splash 24/7, who
are mentioned in connection with item 4 below.
FOB Network is a kind of facebook for the maritime classes.
It is designed for use by people who are very often quite shy of opining
in wide open internet platforms. The exchanges are polite, moderated
and untainted by boorish online presences. Only registered members can
see what goes on in the groups and we have yet to request anyone to
moderate their tone.
———–
Registration for FOB is gratis for individuals. Businesses
can take out a page for a small supporting contribution and we welcome
firms prepared to sponsor Group pages or advertise with us. This helps
to keep FOB a going concern and puts a smile on the face of our programmers
and accountants..
FOB is a project designed to adapt the new ways of using the internet
for the sorts of people who read The Maritime Advocate.
You are welcome to join
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1. Deepwater Horizon Consent Decree
We are indebted to Dennis L. Bryant’s Maritime blog for this reference:-
The US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana has approved
the consent decree among defendant BP Exploration & Production Inc.
and the United States, and the states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana,
Mississippi, and Texas. Among other things, the decree calls for payment
of a $5.5 billion civil penalty and $7.1 billion in natural resource
damages. This is the largest civil penalty settlement in history against
a single defendant. In re MODU Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, MDL No.
2179 (E.D. La., April 4, 2016). To read the 90 page decree go to:-
http://www.brymar-consulting.com/wp-content/uploads/Misc/Consent_Decree_160404.pdf
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2. Allianz Annual Shipping and Safety Review
Since our last edition the latest instalment of this excellent review
of the shipping casualty year has appeared. We can recall a time when
the marine insurance world enjoyed a plethora of casualty related reports
and writings. Nowadays we think the fellows at Allianz lead a much smaller
field picking the bones out of a year’s worth of major accidents. Casualties
are down.
Read the Review here:-
http://www.agcs.allianz.com/assets/PDFs/Reports/AGCS_Safety_Shipping_Review_2016.pdf
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3. LMAA Seminar in Singapore
Margareta Svigler has sent in details of the LMAA’s Singapore
Seminar on 16th May 2016, “Effective Arbitration on LMAA Terms
– A User’s Guide”, as well as a Reception at the Residence
of the British High Commissioner.
Admission is open to non-members as well as full, aspiring and supporting
members.
[We have heard word the event is highly subscribed–the organisers
may have to contemplate a change of venue–ed]
https://www.scribd.com/doc/307483417/Lmaa-Seminar-Singapore-May-2016
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4. Panama Papers
Columnist Andrew Craig Bennet is on fine form with these thoughts on
Shipping and the Panama Papers Affair which appeared in three instalments
of the excellent Splash 24/7 e-zine. Here is a flavour:-
The electronic filing system of one – just one – Panamanian
law firm dealing in the incorporation of companies in ‘offshore’
(note then word!) jurisdictions – Mossack Fonseca – has been
hacked, and out have spilled all sorts of juicy names. If I were a partner
in – for the sake of argument – De Castro and Robles, or Franco
and Franco, or Icaza Gozales – Ruiz & Aleman, or Mata and Pitti,
or Arosemena Noriega and Contraras, or any of the others, or if I were
a partner in any of the London and New York and Hong Kong and Singapore
corporate law firms who are their professional clients, I would be thinking
very hard about internet security. Because there are an awful lot more
names to come, including perhaps two thirds of the shipowners and two
thirds of the charterers, as well as most of the world’s remaining
politicians. Unsurprisingly, the Marcos dynasty in the Philippines are
in the first batch, along with – well – You Know Who, regardless
of which side of the Great Firewall you are on.
Read the columns in full here:-
http://splash247.com/the-panama-papers-part-one/
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5. Winter Has Come: the State of Steel in China
Andrew Batson, writing in his blog, sheds light on how the crisis in
steel production looks from the Chinese end of the bath:-
"It’s hard to understand the Chinese economy without understanding
what’s going on in the steel sector. I found the following short
interview with Cai Rang, chairman of the China Iron & Steel Research
Institute Group, to be one of the better recent summaries of the situation
I’ve come across in domestic sources, and also useful as an indicator
of what some insiders are thinking."
http://tinyurl.com/ColdSinoSteel
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6. People and Places
Jane Smallman CSci CMarSci FIMarEST was appointed 114th President of
the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST)
at its 127th Annual General Meeting on Friday 18th March 2016. Jane
is the first woman to hold the position in the Institute’s 127-year
history.
After a PhD in applied mathematics, specifically the computational
modelling of water waves around structures, Jane modelled chemical systems
for British Gas before moving to HR Wallingford, a world leading specialist
consultant in the field of civil engineering and environmental hydraulics.
She was initially involved in maritime civil engineering and went on
to develop business and manage and direct projects throughout the world.
She retired as Managing Director of HR Wallingford in 2015, and in addition
to her IMarEST activities, is also a part of the advisory board of the
Centre for Ecology, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas).
———-
Alexey Isaykin, President of Volga-Dnepr Group, has been inducted
to the TIACA Hall of Fame.
Isaykin has been President of Volga-Dnepr since 2002, during which
time the organization has grown to a global group of more than 20 companies.
Isaykin graduated from the Irkutsk Institute of National Economy in
1976 before joining the Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant as an Air Force economist
with responsibility over aviation equipment. During the late 1980s,
Isaykin worked at the Ulyanovsk Aircraft Manufacturing Complex as an
executive officer, managing the USSR Military Air Transportation Department
contracts for AN-124 aircraft delivery. In 1989, after having finished
his military career, Isaykin headed a group of entrepreneurs and enthusiasts
whose aim was to establish a new private air cargo company – Volga-Dnepr
Airlines. The company was the first private cargo airline in Russia
and the first joint stock company in the Ulyanovsk region.
The TIACA Hall of Fame honors air cargo professionals who have played
a role in the progress of aviation and have helped to shape and grow
the industry.
————
Alexander Goulandris of essDOCS has been appointed Member of the Advisory
Board of the ICC Banking Commission, the world’s foremost authority
on trade finance.
———-
London based Atlantic Marine Associates Limited has appointed Phil
Osmotherley as their Technical Director and Principal Surveyor.
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From the Avo Archive
The website of this newsletter contains all the editorial material
since the inception of the Maritime Advocate as a print based quarterly
in 1997 under the founding aegis of John Guy, Chris Hewer and Manfred
Arnold. Readers can go to the site and search the database on the home
page in its entirety. If you are looking for an old case, an old controversy
or you would just like to see how many times you and your firm have
featured in our annals feel free to access the archive. It is like this
e-zine, free to Readers and we always appreciate the support of advertisers
and sponsors.
The first reference to the Deepwater Horizon we can find is in Issue
435 dated May 7th, 2010.
Deepwater Horizon
Voices in the London Insurance market are saying the insurance claims
incurred in this case will resemble those of the Piper Alpha rig fire.
Readers with acute memories will recall that it was this case which
pushed the first heavy stone down the LMX claims spiral of the late
1980s. Things will be better this time but we have noticed that underwriters
of the risk have taken to expressing their exposures net of reinsurance,
normally a sign the numbers are much more alarming.
Courtesy of Dennis Bryant’s e-zine we learn the US federal government
has created "at least" three web sites reporting on the state
of play for the Deepwater Horizon/Mississippi Canyon 252 oil spill.
They are:-
Unified Command—http://www.deepwaterhorizonresponse.com/go/site/2931/
NOAA Incident News—http://www.incidentnews.gov/incident/8220
EPA Monitoring—http://www.epa.gov/bpspill/
This high degree of scrutiny will, we imagine, gain in emotional intensity
when the pictures of oiled birds start coming in.
http://www.avoarchive.com/searchBI.php
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Tenderness
Dear John,
I have been unable to sleep since I broke off our engagement.
Won’t you forgive and forget? Your absence is breaking my heart. I
was a fool, nobody can take your place. I love you.
All my love,
Belinda. Xxxxoooxxxx
P.S. Congratulations on winning this week’s lottery.
[Source: Paul Dixon]
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RIP
The man who invented predictive text died yesterday.
His funfair is next monkey.
[Source: Frazer Hunt]
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