Some of London’s finest legal minds in LNG shipping and their associates met in person on Thursday evening in London along with a few not-so furry friends.
At Stephenson Harwood’s now legendary “Ice cold in Moorgate - the sequel” guests were welcomed to a packed, low-lit room in the lawyer’s City offices dotted with penguins, lumps of ice and an apparently life size polar bear — all lovingly crafted in fibre glass.
Vibrant-coloured cocktails were on offer and a few brave souls were seen trying out the vodka luge.
Irrepressible Stephenson Harwood partner Stuart Beadnall was on hand to promote the publication “Intertanko Guide to LNG Chartering” which he co-authored with GasLog head of chartering David Chapman.
The weighty 300-page-plus tome tangles with the intricacies of the LNG trade and charter parties. Beadnall blames the genesis of the book on questions from a young Affinity broker. You know who you are.
In the appendices Beadnall and Chapman thank each other for “an enjoyable and fruitful collaboration”.
They added: “Having agreed not to meet each other for lunch until the book is complete, we shall now make our contribution to restarting the UK economy.”
But the evening’s highlight had to be the ice-themed quiz which was designed with — yes you’ve guessed it — a special LNG section.
This did not bring a hush of whispered answers to the room.
By the end participants had noisily risen to the challenge of trying to name where certain LNG carriers were built or what they were converted to, along with distances between load and discharge ports — the latter was something of a hit with the brokers.
Let’s just say that some of those who should have known certain answers did not but then they came up trumps on others which may not have fitted their specialist knowledge. But that is the beauty of a quiz.
More of these please — and make it a double round on the LNG questions next time.
