THE BILLION DOLLAR VOYAGE

• Strait of Hormuz, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and other maritime chokepoints.
• Missile, drone and asymmetric attacks; detention, seizure, mining and navigation interference.
• Impact on cargo and Indian EXIM trade.
• Rerouting, freight escalation, bunker costs, congestion, delay and cargo deterioration.
• Force majeure, frustration, deviation and the distinction between commercial hardship and legal impossibility.

Practical exercise: A tanker is ordered to transit Hormuz while security conditions deteriorate. Participants identify the immediate legal, commercial and operational decisions.

• Structure of marine insurance: Hull & Machinery (H&M), Protection & Indemnity (P&I), cargo, loss of hire and war-risk cover.
• Institute War and Strikes Clauses, Institute Cargo Clauses (A/B/C), exclusions and policy warranties.
• War-risk trading limits, listed areas, cancellation provisions, notice requirements and additional premiums.
• Constructive total loss, general average, sue-and-labour expenses and claims notification.
• Coverage gaps: delay, loss of market, inherent vice, unseaworthiness, sanctions and non-payment.
• Distinction between physical damage, liability exposure and pure financial loss.

Practical exercise: Map a missile attack, cargo contamination and vessel detention against the relevant insurance policies. Identify which policy may respond and what evidence is needed.

• BIMCO CONWARTIME 2025, VOYWAR 2025 and the relevant time-charter and voyage-charter war-risk clauses.
• Owner's rights to refuse or decline dangerous orders, the master's safety responsibilities and reasonable-judgment tests.
• Additional war-risk premium (AWRP/AP), crew bonuses, security expenses, deviation and additional bunkers.
• Safe port, safe route, off-hire, delay, redelivery and alternative employment.
• Express war-risk provisions versus general force majeure and safe-navigation clauses.
• Insurance warranties and the importance of obtaining written confirmation of cover before transit.

Practical exercise: Review a hypothetical charterparty with an order to enter the Persian Gulf. Allocate the costs and assess whether the owner may refuse the order.

• Key voyage and time-charter provisions: employment, deviation, laytime, demurrage, off-hire and safe ports.
• Bills of lading: cargo description, apparent order and condition, clean bills, misdescription and delivery obligations.
• LOIs for delivery without original bills, change of discharge port and other exceptional delivery instructions.
• Enforceability, authority, fraud, sanctions, security and recovery under LOIs.
• Hague/Hague-Visby Rules, applicable carriage-of-goods regimes and contractual allocation of cargo risk.
• Evidentiary value of notices of protest, survey reports, electronic records and correspondence.

Practical exercise: Cargo is delayed at an intermediate port and the receiver requests delivery without original bills. Participants prepare a risk checklist for the carrier, owner and charterer.