The future for bunker trading looks even murkier
The OW Bunker case may be an argument for dropping bunker agents from the supply chain, but agents with market knowledge have their place
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BUNKER trading can, to the outsider at least, appear to be a bafflingly complex business. Certainly, trying to sort out the legal consequences of the collapse of OW Bunker highlights just how convoluted trading can sometimes become.
The Shipowners P&I Club, a mutual-liability insurer for smaller and specialist vessels, has published on its website a summary of the legal implications of the OW Bunker saga. The article, written by Michael Ritter and Paul Dean (respectively an associate and a partner at shipping lawyers Holman Fenwick Willan), gives a good overview of the whole episode and can be found at https://www.shipownersclub.com
For now though, I am more interested in their fascinating account of the trading of bunkers that eventually became the subject of a test case before the UK Supreme Court. In this case, the bunkers were supplied to the products tanker Res Cogitans by OW Bunker Malta Ltd in Tuapse, Russia.
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