GARD SHIPPING AS V CLEARLAKE SHIPPING PTE LTD

[2017] EWHC 1091 (Comm), Queen's Bench Division, Commercial Court, Sir Jeremy Cooke, 12 May 2017

Charterparty (voyage) - Demurrage - Notice of readiness given at discharge port - Substantial delay before discharge orders - Whether demurrage payable at ordinary contractual rate or enhanced rate when vessel used as floating storage - BPVOY4

By a voyage charterparty dated 9 December 2015, owners agreed to let and charterers agreed to hire MT Zaliv Baikal, a 104,532 sdwt crude oil tanker, for one voyage from one safe port Ust-Luga (with further options as to a second and third load port) to one or two safe port(s) "UK CONT NORTH SPAIN - HAMBURG RANGE" (with certain exceptions) with optional discharges at up to four interim ports. The charterparty was varied by an Addendum dated 22 December 2015, which provided for a second voyage in direct continuation from the first, with the loadport specified as one safe port Ust-Luga or St Petersburg and the discharge range as before. The charterparty was on an amended BPVOY4 form. The dispute arose out of the second voyage, the issue being whether or not owners were entitled to claim demurrage at an escalated rate along with the value of bunkers consumed, over a period of 64.7083 days, during which the vessel was waiting to discharge cargo at Rotterdam between 26 January 2016, when notice of readiness was given upon arrival at Rotterdam, and 31 March 2016. Charterers accepted that they gave no discharge instructions during this period, and that the vessel's delay in berthing and discharging her cargo was caused by them "for their own commercial purposes". The issue turned on the construction of the terms of the charter or alternatively the existence of an implied term. Owners claimed the sum of US$976,731.79 on the basis of their construction of the charter or the term which on their case was to be implied into it. Charterers contended that even if owners were correct on either point, they could not recover the full sum claimed.