BP Shipping partners with Windward for sanctions due diligence

In 2019, BP Shipping was assessed by Poten Partners as the sixth largest charterer in the tanker market. As such, it has a huge potential exposure of working with counterparties that may have current or historical trade links with entities on a sanctions list. By partnering with Windward, BP Shipping is looking to minimise those risks, such as the sanctions imposed on some COSCO tanker companies.

Windward is to deliver a broad set of behavioral analytics and insights to enable BP Shipping to digitalise its business trade practices relating to sanctions compliance, establishing due diligence adherence to the highest global standards.

This is seen as advancing to next-generation digital know your vessel (KYV) practices in line with the monumental changes in trade practices taking place among some the world’s largest trading partners.

BP Shipping vice president of technical and vetting Mark Fortnum commented, “We have evaluated Windward for around 12 months and have gained a clear insight into what their capabilities and domain expertise can deliver across the due diligence and know your vessel process. It has been a process of true collaboration and partnership to provide a solution adapted to BP Shipping’s needs. The OFAC advisories published recently are a game-changer for the maritime and trade ecosystems regarding compliance requirements. Solutions that can increase both quality and efficiency in our sanctions compliance operations are essential across all related business transactions.”

Windward vice president, commercial Ron Crean said, “We are excited to partner with BP Shipping. They are a global leader in energy and shipping, continually at the forefront of implementing new solutions such as analytics and AI to drive and protect the business in a changing regulatory environment.”

Speaking on a business media platform about the partnership, Windward co-founder and chief executive Ami Daniel spoke of the wider implications of Windward working with BP Shipping. “This is the inflection point. The single most important factor is cultural fit. The key is collaboration, bring together data scientists and experts from both sides and cracking the day-to-day impact on the workflow.”

Windward has provided analytics of ’missing’ AIS signals to customers assessing tanker trades and also provides a free-to-use Covid-19 coronavirus shipping impact map.