BIMCO's documentary work – an update on CII

Published: 26 July 2023

In the coming weeks we will publish a series of updates on BIMCO’s documentary work programme in the member newsletter. We will explore the work of the current subcommittees and provide information about the new projects scheduled to commence later in the year. We will start by focusing on the subcommittee agenda associated with CII.

Some of you will have noted that we are currently conducting a CII survey. The survey has been initiated by our recently established CII Post Implementation Review group with the purpose of gaining an in-depth understanding of how CII is being dealt with and handled contractually, commercially, technically, and operationally by the market. If you have not received the survey, and would like to contribute, please contact us at contracts@bimco.org. The Documentary Committee (DC) plans to discuss the findings of the survey at the next DC meeting in October.

Last year, BIMCO published the CII Operations Clause for Time Charter Parties. While the clause is not a strict compliance clause, it aims to give the parties a framework to enable the owners to meet their CII obligations under the MARPOL regulations. The clause includes commercial elements such as data sharing and obligations to collaborate.

After publication of the CII Operations Clause, two new subcommittees were established. One tasked with developing a CII Trip Time Charter Party Clause and another tasked with developing a CII Voyage Charter Party Clause.

Developing a CII Trip Time Charter Party Clause was challenged by the fact that the market is still finding its feet and we experienced a divergence of opinion as to how to deal with CII in a trip time charter party context. When feedback was sought, the subcommittee was left with an unclear direction about the way forward. The subcommittee therefore decided to resume its work at a later stage when more certainty is established.

The subcommittee tasked with the development of a CII Voyage Charter Party Clause has completed the drafting. During this process, consultation drafts were shared with the DC and a sounding board consisting of charterers and traders for their comments. Once adopted and published, owners and charterers can consider incorporating such a standard clause into their voyage charter parties, which allows the vessel to slow steam to reduce carbon emissions. As part of the development of this clause, it was discussed whether elements of the published BIMCO clauses on Virtual Arrival Clause For Voyage Charter Parties and Just In Time Arrival Clause For Voyage Charter Parties should be built into the draft CII Voyage Charter Party Clause. The subcommittee discussed and agreed to keep them as separate clauses.

The CII Voyage Charter Party Clause will be put up for adoption at the next DC meeting in October. In the meantime, subcommittee work will continue. One subcommittee will commence drafting a clause addressing CII in COAs or, if considered more urgent, ETS in COAs. In addition to this subcommittee (which consists primarily of the former subcommittee members), the remainder of the carbon clauses subcommittee members will constitute the second subcommittee and begin development of an ETS Clause for Voyage Charter Parties.

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