A Study On The Obligation And Risk Of Bunker Payment Of Shipowners

OW Bunker was once the world's largest bunker supply company.In November 2014,the company announced bankruptcy and reorganization due to failure of risk control mechanism and forgery events of its subsidiary.Since bunker supply practice actually involves many aspects such as the ship-owner,time charterer,middleman and actual supplier,as well as the complexity of the contract terms and the differences in provisions of maritime lien in different nations,the oil purchaser and supplier has some controversy about the nature of the bunker supply contract and the payment of bunker.In the case of PST Energy 7 Shipping LLC and another v OW Bunker Malta Ltd.,the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom made a final judgment on the dispute over the nature of bunker supply contract and its impact on the ship's payment obligations,which evokes extensive discussions in both theory and practice.The retention of title clause and the credit period clause in the contract are the main reasons for the dispute of contractual nature.This dissertation uses the special clauses in the contract as the entrance to analyze the impact of the contractual nature on the shipowner's payment obligations,and proposes the author's opinion in contract of sale.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the dissertation has four chapters.The first chapter describes the concept and characteristics of the bunker supply contract,and introduces its ceurrent common format and the latest standard format.The second chapter analyzes the nature of the bunker supply contract,puts forward the author's view of contractual nature and analyzes the impact of sale contract on the ship-owner's payment obligations.In addition,the chapter divides the ship-owners into the owners who self-operate ships and the owners under the time charter.The author separately discusses the legal relationship between ship-owners and bunker suppliers in both cases,clarifies the rights and obligations of the parties under the contract and analyze the responsibility and obligation on bunker payment.The third chapter mainly analyzes the risk of bunker payment and ship arrest for shipowners in detail,combining with the jurisprudence,laws of several countries and international conventions.The final chapter refers to the practices of other countries and proposes relevant measures for ship-owners in both cases to deal with and prevent the risk of payment claims.For owners of self-operated ships,the disputed amount can be submitted to a third-party account in the face of double claims in certain countries.On the one hand,it can avoid the economic loss caused by the arrest of the ship.On the other hand,it can evade the risk of ship-owners to distinguish the party to pay.Secondly,when signing the bunker supply contract,it is recommended that the owner of the self-operated ship change the payment method,dividing the bunker fee into two parts for the middleman and the actual supplier.Furthermore,it is recommended that the contract supplements that the minddleman should provide with the written evidence that he has performed the obligation of payment to the actual supplier so that the ship-owner could ensure that the middleman has obtained the ownership of bunker.For the owners under time charter,non-lien clause and the FD&D insurance can prevent the risk of payment claim to a certain extent.By studying the bunker supply contract,the legal status of the contract parties is clarified,the rights and obligations of the parties are regulated,to avoid the legal risks of shipowners due to uncertainty of the contract.By analyzing the claims of payment in different countries,the author proposes relevant measures to deal with and prevent risks to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the shipowners.There are two innovations in this dissertation.The one is the innovation of structure.The ship-owners are divided into the owners who self?operates ship and the owners under time charter-party.The obligation of bunker payment and risk of payment claims are studied in two situations.Previous risk studies were limited to ship-owners who self?operate ships and purchase bunker,or shipowners under time charter-party.This dissertation integrates the risk of payment claims faced by ship-owners in two situations,systematically studies the ship owner's oil payment obligations and risks.The other one is the innovation of content.Above all,although some scholars believe that the bunker supply contract is a contract of sale,the argumentation is not sufficient.The author categorizes bunker supply contract into a contract of sale and argues that retention of title clause is only a form of guarantee with no impact on the nature of contract.In the next place,the author proposes her suggestions to respond and prevent the risk of payment claims for ship-owners in two situations,of which there are specific amendments to the way of payment.Compared with the general conclusions of previous studies,this dissertation provides a detailed explanation of relevant suggestions,as well as discussing their feasibility.