In recent years we have been advising on a large number of high-profile cases, including the “Full City” grounding and oil spill, the “Murmansk” and “U-864” wreck removal contracts, the “Server” grounding and oil spill, the “Tricolor” collision, the “Rocknes” grounding and capsizing, the “Hual Europe” grounding, the “Amorgos” grounding and oil spill, and the “Leros Strength” total loss and oil spill. We further assist the major Spanish yard Navantia in connection with their delivery of new frigates to the Norwegian Navy. Further we continuously assist in liability issues under OTCs/ FFAs, and in several direct action claims against Norwegian P&I insurers.
We have acted as advocates in several of the above mentioned cases before the Norwegian courts, and several of the partners in the Shipping Department are admitted to the Norwegian Supreme Court.
Vogt & Wiig has broad experience within the shipbuilding and offshore construction market, on behalf of shipowners, operators, banks and yards. Through our teams in Norway and Singapore we have in the last 2 years assisted on more than 100 shipbuilding contracts in Norway, Singapore, Korea, China, Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia. We are the main legal advisor to a major Norwegian yard and closely involved with ancillary design and equipment contracts. We have assisted various clients with cancellation and restructuring of various newbuilding orders in excess of 25 vessels at Korean and other Far Eastern yards, when the yards have experienced severe financial difficulties and delays. We have assisted in major discussions with the yards and the refund guarantors and been involved in various legal steps in London and Korea. According to our information, we assisted in the first demand under a refund guarantee in Korea for decades. We have also assisted on several resales of newbuildings, various discussions on behalf of and against yards regarding possible cancellation of vessels due to the fall of market values, major bank financings and restructuring of newbuildings and sale/lease back structures of newbuildings and projects, including related disputes and repossessions. In addition, we have experience with assisting buyers of rig construction contracts in several jurisdictions, including China and Russia.