SOUND TRADING PRACTICES
This Code of Ethics and Sound Trading Practices (Code) defines the values, principles and internal controls that Sonan Bunkers (Sonan) shall follow in conducting certain business activities. This Code is expressly applicable to Sonan employees trading and/or scheduling marine fuels and other approved commodities (trading staff) and trading control staff.
The Code is intended to complement the internal principles and practices of Sonan and to guide its agent activities for its clients associated with transaction execution, managing risk, and providing market liquidity. Compliance with this Code provides assurance to clients, regulators, and other market participants that Sonan‘s business activities are, and will continue to be, conducted with integrity.
In addition, assurance is given that unlawful and unethical trading practices are not tolerated, and that Sonan intends to abide by these ethical standards and maintain sound trading practices.
Above all, adopting this Code reaffirms Sonan‘s commitment to excellence, professionalism and unwavering ethical conduct.
I. ETHICAL STANDARDS
Core Value: Integrity
Conducting business activities with integrity is the essence of ethical conduct. Integrity means conducting business activities in an honorable and principled manner, consistent with the ethical standards and sound trading practices set forth herein.
This Code requires that Sonan’s trading staff shall:
- Conduct business in accordance with formally delegated reliability standards, and all applicable laws, regulations, tariffs and rules, and in good faith, and with a commitment to honest dealing.
- Not engage in fraudulent behavior.
- Honour the terms and conditions of Clients’ commodity contracts, consistent with the responsibility as their agent to use its best efforts.
- Engage only in transactions with legitimate business purposes, such as managing business risk or that otherwise have economic substance. In no event will the trading staff engage in any transactions intended to artificially boost revenues or volumes of any party, or in transactions intended to manipulate market prices.
- Not collude with other market participants to:
a) Affect the price or supply of marine fuel
b) Allocate territories, customers or products
c) Otherwise unlawfully restrain competition
- Adhere to Sonan’s Code of Conduct, Trading Authority Policy, and company policies dealing with legal compliance, business conduct, personal conduct, conflict of interest, and vendor relations.
- Maintain and adhere to internal procedures designed to ensure:
a)That all trades are properly documented in a timely fashion
b) That no trades are concealed or misrepresented
c) Use a fair market-clearing price at the location of the trade as a transaction price for trades between Clients.
II SOUND TRADING PRACTICES
Core Value: Adherence to Sound Trading Practices & Principles.
Marine fuel markets reflect the constantly changing dynamics of supply and demand. Efficient business operations in such an environment demand practices that can manage risk and discover market prices. Such practices must be consistent with the guiding Ethical Standards of this Code.
This Code requires that Sonan’s trading staff shall:
- Operate and schedule offer supply in a manner that complies with the rules, regulations, and guidelines of the applicable commodity markets. Moreover, Sonan will not encourage or advise its Clients to engage in such activities or misrepresent the operational capabilities of generation facilities in a manner expressly intended to affect market prices by unlawfully withholding available supply from the market, expressly to create artificial supply shortages. However, Sonan may advise its Clients to decide not to confirm the stem:
a) When such actions would be uneconomic under the given circumstances
b) When such actions would risk jeopardising public health and safety or damaging their facilities
c) In order to comply with facility licensing, environmental, or other legal requirements
- Not participate in transactions or schedule resources with the intent of creating congestion to manipulate prices or to jeopardise the security of dispatch operations.
- Not offer reliability services to the market that its Clients do not intend to provide.
- Not arrange and execute simultaneous offsetting buy and sell trades. (e.g. with the same counter-party and identical price, commodity, location and quantity terms, with an intent to artificially distort actual revenues, trading volumes or affect market prices.
- Not conduct trading for the purpose of misrepresenting the financial condition of its Clients’ organisations.
- Not submit or communicate any trade information, trade prices, price quotes, or like information directly to market publications and publishers of surveys and price indices, or like entities, either orally or otherwise.
- Not solicit receipt of non-public information regarding transmission, transportation, or storage, except for such information that constitutes legitimate Sonan business on behalf of a Sonan Client.
- Not distribute non-public information regarding transmission, transportation, or storage, except for such information that constitutes legitimate Sonan business on behalf of a Sonan Client. For this exception, such distribution is limited to only those parties who are on a need-to-know basis. (e.g. the Sonan Client, the bunker provider, the pipeline company, or the storage resource provider.)
III. INFORMATION DISCLOSURE AND DOCUMENTATION
Core Value: Candid and Complete Disclosure
Markets depend on trust in the accuracy of market information and transparency of market behavior. The confidentiality of commercially sensitive information entrusted to Sonan will be maintained.
The trading control staff shall remain separate and distinct from Sonan trading staff.
Sonan‘s trading control staff shall:
- Provide market and transaction information to its Clients as required by regulators and market monitors in compliance with all applicable rules and requirements, and to cooperate as reasonably necessary to assist in their understanding of market operations.
- When reporting transactions, do so in accordance with applicable accounting principles and in a manner that accurately represents the price and characteristics of such transactions.
- Monitor compliance with the trading authority policies that are designed to ensure that marine fuels and other approved commodity trading activities are conducted in accordance with such trading authority policies.
- Maintain and adhere to internal procedures designed to ensure:
a) That all trades are properly captured in a timely fashion
b) That no trades are concealed or misrepresented
- Maintain documentation on all transactions for an appropriate period of time as required of Sonan (under applicable laws and regulations).
IV Comprehensive Corporate Compliance
Sonan has a compliance program to ensure appropriate, timely, and ongoing reviews of marine fuels and other approved commodity trading practices. The program is designed to promote compliance with this Code.
Trading staff violations of this Code are addressed by Sonan‘s Trading Sanctions
Policy. Violations of this Code by Trading Control staff are subject to disciplinary action, including termination of employment, as determined by the Managing Director.
