UK P&I Club successfully hosts first in series of live training webinars

The UK P&I Club successfully conducted its first training webinar for Members and the wider maritime industry on 2nd April from its Singapore office, addressing the practical and legal issues related to marine fuel quality.

In view of the social distancing measures put into place by the industry across the globe, nearly 600 members of the marine sector registered for the webinar and demonstrated how UK P&I Club is adapting its services to Members.

The webinar was held on the subject of ‘Bunker quality Claims’ and was moderated by Captain Anuj Velankar, Senior Loss Prevention Advisor, UK P&I Club. Captain Velankar stressed the need for the industry to keep an eye on the usual suspects of maritime hazards, while the industry focused its attention on the challenges related to the Covid-19 situation. He emphasised the need for various parties, from shipboard staff to owners, charterers and bunker suppliers, to work together with regard to bunker quality claims to clearly understand their rights and recourse against each other.

The expert panel on the webinar also included Ansuman Ghosh, Risk Assessor, UK P&I Club, who is based in Singapore, and Kendall Tan, Partner with Singapore law firm Rajah & Tann. Kendall reiterated the need for shipowners to ensure the terms in their charterparty clearly laid out the bunker standards and also the testing mechanisms to avoid disputes.

Stuart Edmonston, Loss Prevention Director at UK P&I Club, says: “As we all adapt to the current circumstances, we as a Club continue to embrace and develop new methods of reaching Members and the broader maritime community. Our first training webinar was a great success, exceeding our expectations, and giving participants the opportunity to hear from experts in their fields. As we strive to keep marine professionals up to date with training requirements, and informed on evolving industry issues, in an environment where many events and meetings have been postponed or cancelled, we are planning to conduct more webinars in the near future.”