The drafting team set up by BIMCO and the Association of Ship Brokers & Agents (U.S.A.), Inc. (ASBA) to develop the recently published gas tanker charter party ASBAGASVOY has drafted a document containing additional clauses for possible use with the new charter.
The optional additional clauses developed for ASBAGASVOY, which was published together with explanatory notes in September, are not part of the charter party but are being published to provide users with a selection of additional clauses they might want to incorporate. They can be included on a case-by-case basis as part of the negotiations.
“We have focused primarily on vessel presentations for petrochemical gases as presentation of the vessel is one of the key points where a dedicated gas tanker charter party varies a lot from a regular tanker charter party,” says Stephen Harper, Head of Legal, Shipping at BW Group and BIMCO co-chair of the subcommittee, adding:
“Presentation is a complex matter and we want to provide hands-on and easy to use options to those fixing on ASBAGASVOY when they have to fill in their own presentation clause.”
The presentation clauses are divided into ethylene, propylene and butadiene.
Other clauses that are applicable for many, or all, segments of the shipping industry have deliberately been left out of the document.
“Our goal was to develop gas specific clauses for use with ASBAGASVOY. We did not consider it appropriate for the subcommittee to develop clauses which might then be used more widely in other BIMCO and ASBA contracts,” says Søren Wolmar, Chairman of ASBA’s Documentary Committee and co-chair of the subcommittee.
To “future proof” the document, it has been thought appropriate to also include a first example of a clause relating to the usage of LPG as fuel for LPG carriers.
A link to BIMCO’s clauses on the BIMCO website has been included in the introduction of the document. This will ensure that all BIMCO clauses are available and used in their most recent version.
The drafting team also consisted of Elwin Taylor (Petredec), Tommy Baggio (Clarksons, recently retired), Magne Andersen (Nordisk Legal Services) and Caroline Avgerinou (Thomas Miller P&I (Europe) Ltd.).
The document will be presented to the Documentary Committee at its next meeting in January after which it will be published.
Source: Hellenic Shipping
