On 13th April, the UK P&I and UK Defence Clubs hosted a joint seminar at the Moda Yacht Club in Istanbul which focused on topical risk and liability issues for their Members and the wider shipping community.

The movement of oil cargoes through the Bosporous has substantially exceeded 100 million tons over the past five years. In the past eleven years there have been a dozen significant oil spills ranging from small bunker spills of five or six tonnes of fuel oil to major cargo losses of up to 95,000 tonnes of crude oil.

After a keynote introduction by Hugo Wynn-Williams, chairman of club managers Thomas Miller, senior claims director Lance Hebert of the UK Club addressed the topic of casualty response and environmental claims from the P&I perspective.

Andrew Tucker of the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation followed with case studies of pollution and contamination in the Sea of Marmara and the Bosporus strait and the communities that live alongside those waters.

International sanctions and piracy have raised complex issues for shipowners beyond compliance and security. Is a ransom legally payable and if so who should pay it ? For many ransoms should be part of a general average process, but establishing proportions of payment can be time-consuming, even in conventional cases.

Kit Chan addressed these issues on behalf of the UK Defence Club for the benefit of the audience of local ship operators, brokers and other members of the Turkish maritime community.

The seminar concluded with a forward looking presentation on proactive risk management by the UK Club's Loss Prevention Director, Karl Lumbers. With an estimated $1.2 billion worth of major maritime claims being incurred every year by the shipping industry establishing a methodology to manage risk is a clear priority.

Although key areas of claim are clearly identifiable, Karl's emphasis was on a higher strategy that enables owners to establish the various circumstances leading to claims of all types, identify the specific hazards and the detrimental consequences that follow should those circumstances and hazards remain unchecked.

After the seminar a cocktail reception was held for the participants and their wives and partners.