Barbara Jennings, Director Offshore, The Standard Steamship Owners P&I Association will address the seminar on Tuesday on the topic of “The Interface between Construction All Risks Insurance & Contractor’s Liability Coveragesand says her message is simple.

“The key for energy firms is to ensure that they have their contract wording between their energy carriers and their marine risks correct so there is no dispute or ambiguity over coverage,” she adds. “With the use of FSPOs there is a great deal of risk which can fall into the marine market but the contracts have to be worded to ensure that there is no gap in coverage or there is room for dispute over which policy covers the claim.

“The flip side is that you need to ensure you do not have two contracts which cover the same risks because it will mean unnecessary premium spend.”

Miss Jennings Adds: “I hope that what I will be able to do is to explain the role of the P&I market its mutual operation and how far the market can go including the risks which cannot be covered.”

She adds that the use of FPSOs does provide a coverage dilemma for the policyholder as to the most appropriate way to arrange coverage given the fact that the platform is actually deemed a vessel.

“It has only been recently that the US Coastguard has been convinced of the benefits of the use of FPSO in the Gulf of Mexico,” explains Ms Jennings. “Given the ability to move the FPSIO it does mean there is a chance to get the platform out of the way of the storm if you can act in time.

“As we saw with Ike, hurricanes don’t always act as planned. While the intensity was not high it was slow moving so rigs were exposed to significant levels of wind and have activity for a prolonged period rather than a short but very sharp shock. In such cases something has to give.”