Steve Simms explores the transition from traditional paper-based bunker delivery notes (BDNs) to electronic bunker delivery notes (eBDNs) in the maritime industry.

In this article, Steve Simms urges bunker traders and suppliers to take notice, as nuclear power has now arrived in their industry.

Steve Simms emphasizes the importance for bunker traders and suppliers to "look ahead constantly" due to rapidly changing sanctions laws, particularly around Venezuelan, Russian, Iranian, and North Korean oil products.

In this article, Steve Simms details global bunkering industry’s increasing shift towards sustainability, with biofuels playing a key role in reducing vessel carbon emissions. However, as the demand for biofuels rises, fraudulent activities and disputes within the industry are also becoming more prevalent.

In the most recent issue of World Bunkering Magazine, Steve Simms addresses patents and new fuels – and what bunker suppliers, traders and their customers must consider about them now.

July 10, 2023, the IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 80) affirmed use of electronic bunker delivery notes - “EBDN’s.” This article by principal Steve Simms addresses the legal considerations of using EBDNs and also as EBDNs become more widely used, the legal challenges to not using them.

Simms Showers is pleased to announce that Gary Murphy has joined the Firm as Of Counsel following 20 years of experience as a retired U.S. Coast Guard Commander with four years of underway experience on Coast Guard cutters.  As a Coast Guard attorney, Gary served as the Deputy Office Chief in the Coast Guard Office of Claims and Litigation and served as Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and Trial Attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. 

The European Council and Parliament have at last hammered out the text for FuelEU Maritime. As Steve Simms of Simms Showers explains in this Bunkerspot article, its provisions will have a significant impact on marine fuel suppliers, not least in relation to the burden of responsibility when it comes to paying penalties.

Sanctions introduced following Russia’s aggression against Ukraine have blocked the sale and purchase of Russian sourced bunker fuel. Steve Simms of Simms Showers takes a close look at how national regulations interpret the ‘transformation’ of Russian marine fuel into a non-sanctioned product – and uncovers more questions than clear answers.