Final payment and surcharges

[TriumphGuy]

We paid off our April 2020 cruise last night for financial planning/cash flow reasons. Today I read that the oil refinery attacks in Saudi Arabia knocked out half their oil exports. Global oil prices are expected to rise significantly, at least in the short term.

My question is, since we have made final payment now, can or will HAL levy a surcharge should oil prices explode? Has this ever happened to anyone?

[caribill]

The cruise lines usually have in the contract that if the price of oil goes above $xx, then they could add a surcharge at any time.

 

With the Saudi Arabia refinery being offline, there is no shortage of oil and the price of oil should not increase. However, there may be a shortage of refined products which could affect pricing of those products.

 

But the surcharge is based on the price of oil, not the price of refined products, so there should not be any surcharge due to this incident as the price of oil is likely to go down (not up) as there is a lack of refining capacity to process the crude, and thus there will be surplus crude in the world.

[caribill]

I see that contrary to my prediction that the price of crude has increased significantly even though there is no crude shortage anywhere in the world.

 

I can understand such an increase if the Saudi crude production has been damaged, but so far I have not seen press reports that it has. Just seeing reports about the refinery damage.

[CruiserBruce]

@caribill, your post indicates that you think the jump in prices might be emotional, rather than driven by the facts. But in any case, the rise in prices is there. Many of these things are emotional, and in the increase could be caused by the fear that the crisis may get worse, with more of the oil supply threatened or damaged by the response. In any event, the increase is still there.

 

For the OP, most, if not all, cruise lines have the ability to add a energy surcharge to your fare, no matter what the cause of a price spike. It is optional, not required. So we will see what the cruise lines might do.

[0bnxshs]

OP, there is no mention of the price of a barrel of oil in the current contract.  The only fuel surcharge addressed in the current cruise contract regards airline fuel surcharges for those who booked their air transportation through HAL (section 17(C)).  They specify that they can pass those surcharges on to passengers should an airline assess them.  It does not address fuel surcharges that the line might impose at all.  After the last fiasco regarding fuel surcharges I believe CCL would be hard-pressed to attempt this again.  But, you never know!