It is worth mentioning that the Bunkers Convention is accompanied by an IMO resolution which urges all contracting states to ratify or accede to the 1996 protocol to the 1976 convention, thereby providing greatly increased funds against which claims, including Bunker pollution claims, can be brought. However, there are still difficulties in the insurance area and some effort has been made to restrict the burden of this obligation. Only the registered shipowner is required to have insurance and that is restricted to ships over 1,000 tonnes and even this figure appears to have been a compromise. Not surprisingly, the shipowners' organisations and their insurers argued for the highest threshold possible, while coastal states argued that it should be as low as possible so that the maximum number of incidents would fall within the insurance requirement.