Port Said Bunker Delays: Count Only Added Exposure

Key takeaways

• Compare the revised programme with the supported original baseline.
• Apply price changes only to the relevant unchanged quantity or explain quantity changes separately.
• Include extra charges only on an identified contractual or quoted basis.
• Keep an internal exposure estimate separate from any recoverable claim.

Canal context does not supply the cost answer

SCA's navigation-system publication covers Port Said arrival arrangements within the canal traffic framework. SCA navigation system

The current applicable text and actual vessel arrangements require confirmation. The publication does not establish which additional costs a particular bunker delay causes or who bears them.

For a current transaction, the delay-cost basis is not provided; obtain current verified information. Record the original and revised propositions, supported extra expenses and programme-time assumptions.

Separate the original purchase from its price change

If the vessel still buys the same approved quantity, compare its revised fuel amount with the original accepted basis. The difference may be a price change; the entire revised invoice is not an additional purchase cost caused by the event.

If quantity changes, show that effect separately. A revised requirement can increase total expenditure even when unit price is unchanged, and it may have a different cause from the delay.

Do not apply a price difference to every planned fleet purchase merely because the market indication moved. Use the actual transaction scope affected by the accepted change.

Identify the extra service rather than assuming a penalty

A revised arrangement may involve additional services or an agreed amendment charge. Ask what was provided or agreed, who charges it and whether it is already included elsewhere.

Avoid calling an amount a canal penalty or mandatory fee without the relevant current evidence. A supplier or agent charge can have a different basis from an authority tariff.

Where entitlement is disputed, preserve the claim and the buyer's position separately. Check the current agreement and obtain appropriate advice rather than treating a quoted amount as automatically payable.

Illustrative incremental-exposure calculation

ILLUSTRATIVE — fictional purchase changes and assessed programme effects, not current Port Said prices or authority fees.

The unchanged requirement is 600 tonnes. Its original price is $625 per tonne, producing $375,000 of baseline fuel expenditure. The revised price is $630, producing $378,000. The price effect is therefore $3,000.

Assume an expressly agreed additional service costs $2,000 and the responsible programme assessment identifies 8 extra hours. At an illustrative $1,500 per hour, the time component is $12,000.

The combined incremental exposure is $3,000 + $2,000 + $12,000 = $17,000. Adding the full revised fuel invoice to those extras would confuse the original purchase with the additional effect. No contractual recovery is determined by this calculation.

The model is useful only while its assumptions remain supported. If the programme-time effect overlaps an independent delay, or a charge is withdrawn, update that component rather than preserving the original total as an established fact.

A delay-cost decomposition table

Fictional case: the full fuel invoice appears in a delay report

A fictional Port Said delivery moves to a later accepted arrangement. The revised fuel price is higher, and an additional service is agreed. The first internal delay report includes the entire new fuel invoice as a delay cost.

The reviewer restores the original purchase as the baseline and isolates the actual price difference. It separately checks the service amount and the programme team's incremental-time assessment.

Management receives a smaller but more meaningful exposure figure, alongside the full revised voyage cost. The report now explains what changed rather than implying that the vessel would otherwise have needed no fuel.

Preserve the distinction between management cost and debt

A commercial time value helps management compare outcomes. It is not necessarily the rate or measure used by any applicable contract.

Likewise, a documented extra expense does not prove that a supplier, charterer or another party must reimburse it. Responsibility, causation and recoverability require the relevant qualified assessment under current terms.

Keep the factual calculation reproducible so reviewers can change an assumption without reconstructing the entire file. That is more useful than a single unexplained amount labelled delay damages.

Common mistakes

Avoid treating the full revised fuel purchase as incremental loss, combining quantity and price changes invisibly or labelling every extra charge an authority penalty. Other errors include double counting overlapping time and presenting an internal valuation as a payable claim. Explain each changed component and its evidence.

Where Zeaclub fits

Zeaclub provides a multi-party shared workspace for owners, charterers, brokers and port agents.

Zeaclub offers digitalised procedures across the voyage workflow.

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