Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised Navigazione Montanari S.p.A. (“Navigazione Montanari”) and Nai Int Ltd (“NAI”) on the sale of the Vallermosa and Valtamed tankers. The Vallermosa, which was previously used to transport oil products, was built in South Korea in 2003 at the Hyundai Mipo Dockyard Co. Ltd. It was sold by Navigazione Montanari to Asian buyers. NAI sold the Valtamed, which was built in South Korea in 2004 at the Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co. Ltd. yard. Founded in 1889 and headquartered in Fano, Italy, Navigazione ...

Just as there is no easy route to decarbonisation, there is no straightforward way of balancing a shipowner’s obligation to comply with the MARPOL Carbon Intensity Indicator (“CII”) Regulations with a time charterer’s right to direct the employment of a vessel. That much is clear from the long-awaited BIMCO CII Operations Clause for Time Charters 2022 and, more tellingly, from the industry reaction. Now that the dust is settling: what does the clause actually say? What are the key sticking points? And how are owners and charterers positioning themselves before ...

On December 2 and 3, 2022, the G7 (the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom) and Australia,[1] and the Council of the European Union (“EU”)[2] (collectively, the “Price Cap Coalition”), announced the setting of a price cap of $60 per barrel on seaborne crude oil which originates in or is exported from Russia (“Price Cap”). The Price Cap is implemented as an exception to a general prohibition on providing certain services for the maritime transportation of seaborne Russian-origin oil which had previously been announced or ...

INTRODUCTION In Havila Kystruten AS v Abarca Compania de Seguros AS,¹ in which WFW represented the successful Norwegian shipowner, an English court has provided helpful and very detailed guidance on a number of issues relating to the parties’ rights to terminate shipbuilding contracts as well as the nature and scope of refund guarantees. BACKGROUND Refund guarantees are the lifeblood of shipbuilding, providing invaluable security to owners/buyers who must usually cash fund a significant proportion of the price of newbuildings during the construction phase (usually at least 40%), with the balance ...

Maritime and commercial law firm, Tatham & Co., today announced its expansion into the Greek market with the addition of a senior Athens-based lawyer to its growing team. Ioanna Vitta brings with her over 30 years of experience, specialising in dry shipping. A qualified Greek and English lawyer, Ioanna is also a well regarded and well-known figure in Piraeus and Athens. The move comes following the addition of Chris Farmer, a solicitor Master Mariner, who joined the team earlier in the year to increase the firm’s Admiralty capability. Bringing in ...

Increased focus on decarbonisation has led to more shipbuilding involving state of the art technologies, such as: duel-fuel LNG and LPG vessels, able to burn both traditional conventional HFO bunkers; exhaust gas cleaning equipment – also known as scrubbers; modifications or new-build designs to comply with decarbonisation rules such as EEXI / CII regulations; ammonia-ready ships, built with the intention to be ready to switched to ammonia fuel once reliable supply becomes available. (As ammonia contains no carbon its use does not emit any CO2), and projects to install and ...

In Grand Famous Shipping Limited, et al. v China Navigation Co., the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reviewed the traditional duties owed by a time charter to third parties in tort. although asked by the plaintiffs to broaden these duties, the Fifth Circuit found their “arguments are unmoored from reality”. The Court started its opinion with a scholarly review of the three basic types of charter parties (time charter, voyage charter, bareboat charter). The case arose out of a serious allision in the Houston Ship Channel ...

A federal court ruled in favor of the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth Wednesday in their lawsuit challenging the failure of the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Coast Guard to protect endangered whales from being struck by ships using California ports. The groups sued the agencies in 2021 for failing to meet Endangered Species Act consultation requirements when designating shipping lanes into ports in the Los Angeles, Long Beach and San Francisco Bay regions. Ship strikes are a leading cause of death for blue, ...

WHAT IS CII? The new International Maritime Organisation’s (“IMO’s”) Carbon Intensity Indicator (“CII”) certification will capture a wide range of ship types above 5,000 GT. The CII certification regime forms part of the amendments made under the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (“MARPOL”) Annex VI which came into force on 1 November 2022 (the “Regulations”).² From 2024, ships will receive their first CII Rating ranging from A to E (with A being the highest, E being the lowest and C or above being deemed compliant) based ...

As originally indicated in preliminary guidance issued by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on September 9, 2022 and further explained by additional guidance issued by OFAC on November 22, 2022, on December 2, 2022, the US Treasury Department confirmed that the US would be joining the EU and the other G7 nations in imposing a price cap on crude oil of Russian Federation origin (Russian oil) of US$60 per barrel, effective December 5, 2022. As part of that policy, the US will prohibit US persons ...

On November 21, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets ‎Control ‎‎‎(“OFAC”) reissued General License (“GL”) 13C related to the Russian Harmful Foreign Activities ‎‎Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR Part 587 (the ‎‎‎“RuHSR”), which supersedes GL 13B. GL 13C extends the time for U.S. persons “to pay taxes, fees or import duties, and purchase or receive permits, licenses, registration, or certifications” that are otherwise prohibited by Directive 4 under Executive Order (“EO”) 14024 (“Prohibitions Related to Transactions Involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the National ...

Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised Nordea Bank Abp, filial i Norge (“Nordea”) on term loan facilities of up to US$208,330,000 to be made available by Nordea and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB, Singapore Branch to Taylor Maritime Investments (“TMI”) to assist in financing its acquisition of shares in Grindrod Shipping Holdings Limited (“Grindrod”). The security includes security over accounts held in Germany and South Africa in relation to Grindrod shares listed on NASDAQ and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange and security over nine Marshall Islands handysize vessels. The facility agreement ...

Global law firm Reed Smith has hired Julia Norsetter, JD, formerly a senior policy advisor at the U.S. Department of Transportation, as the policy and analysis lead for the firm’s global Transportation Industry Group. In the newly created role, Norsetter will provide analysis and strategic input, as well as sharing insights into the transportation market, specifically in shipping, and aviation and advanced air mobility – representing a number of Reed Smith’s key sectors. Norsetter brings valuable senior experience to the firm and its clients, having previously developed a range of ...

A Danish court on Monday found a Nigerian man guilty of endangering the lives of military personnel during a gunfight last year with Danish troops on an anti-piracy mission in the Gulf of Guinea. However, the court declined to punish the man because of his health, and his suspected accomplices had been released. “The court emphasized that the man, together with the other perpetrators, fulfilled all the signs of piracy and had to be described as a pirate group,” Copenhagen city court said in a statement. He was, however, never ...

Watson Farley & Williams (“WFW”) has advised Norddeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale (“NORD/LB”) on the long-term financing of an import terminal for liquified gases to be constructed in Stade-Buetzfleh, Lower Saxony, Germany. The project in Niedersachsen Ports GmbH & Co. KG’s harbour section, which is being co-financed by both the German Federal Government and the state of Lower Saxony, is expected to be operational by the end of 2023. The terminal will first operate via a floating storage and regasification unit (“FSRU”) that will supply a land-based regasification facility at a later ...