BIMCO FuelEU Maritime Clause for Time Charter Parties 2024
The standard clause allocating FuelEU Maritime compliance cost between owner and charterer by surcharge, adopted 25 November 2024.
The BIMCO FuelEU Maritime Clause for Time Charter Parties 2024, adopted on 25 November 2024, allocates the cost of complying with Regulation (EU) 2023/1805 between shipowner and time charterer. The allocation problem it solves is that the charterer chooses and pays for the fuel, which determines the greenhouse gas intensity of the energy used on board, while the regulated party under the Regulation is the shipping company.
The clause works by surcharge rather than in kind: where the aggregated compliance balance is negative, the charterer pays the owner an amount equal to the expected FuelEU penalty. Subclause (c) permits the charterer to supply biofuels and obliges it to hand over bunker delivery notes and sustainability certification, but it confers no automatic right to do so. Subclause (e)(iii) does not allow a 2026 charterer to exclude the additional multiplier carried over from a 2025 deficit, and the liquidated damages provisions bite only where a currency and amounts are inserted.
The full article will set out each subclause, compare the surcharge mechanism with the in-kind transfer used in the companion ETS clause, cover the pooling and banking interaction, and explain what an owner and a charterer each have to record to make the clause operable.