Clive Burrows is a principal with Baker Tilly’s forensic, litigation and valuation services practice. He has more than 15 years of experience in quantifying complex forensic accounting and financial investigations for the legal and insurance markets, including loss of profits/business interruption, fraud investigations, cover holder reviews, subrogated recoveries and commercial disputes. His case work in Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific projects has brought industry knowledge in sectors relating to petrochemicals, power generation/energy, metals, construction and retail, and included leading a catastrophe response team in the Japanese insurance market following the Thai floods and Japanese earthquake.
In December 2014, Clive relocated to set up and run the Dubai office, which services the Middle East and North Africa regions.
- Petrochemical plant in Qatar incurred business interruption losses following damage to the refrigeration systems. The incident impacted the efficiency of the vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) plant and its upstream products. A detailed analysis was undertaken of the expected production, the seasonal limitations of the cooling systems in any event, and the impact on the maintenance schedule leading to significant savings. Our calculations were eventually agreed-upon by the insured for full and final settlement
- Large oil refinery construction project in India was delayed following a cyclone, which led to a claim for lost profits amounting to U.S. $800 million. We were instructed to review the adequacy of funding and the cash position available to complete the oil refinery, but for the damage due to the cyclone. The arbitration panel found in favour of our opinion that the project did not have sufficient funds in place to achieve the stated oil-in date, despite the cyclone
- Polypropylene manufacturer in Egypt suffered contingent business interruption losses as a result of a fire to its key propylene feedstock supplier. The insured were able to mitigate its losses by sourcing an alternative supply of feedstock, albeit at an increased cost. We calculated the increased costs, excluding the uneconomic portion of costs, under the named suppliers extension. A swift and amicable settlement was reached with the insured
- We were instructed on several gas turbine (GT) failures to a 4,000 MW plant in the KSA. The business interruption losses were complicated by pre-existing construction defect issues, which needed to be excluded from the claim position. During our analysis of the PPA and the capacity invoices, we discovered that there was an ongoing dispute between the insured and the offtaker about the commercial operation date; the impact of which resulted in a significant reduction against the claimed losses
- An 1,800 MW power plant in KSA which sells all its capacity under a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA), suffered a partial loss of capacity payments due to a fire to one of its steam turbine (ST) units. Our analysis of the claim required establishing the expected capacity payments, but for the incident, considering the terms and conditions of the PPA, historical daily capacity and scheduled maintenance outages. We identified that the initial claim of U.S. $30 million did not consider the normal level of forced outages, and the downstream impact to the damaged ST of the insured utilising secondary fuel sources, but for the incident. We were also able to assist the adjustment team in calculating the economic benefit of repairing rather than replacing the damaged unit. Our calculation was accepted by the insured for the final BI settlement of the claim
- Review of the business interruption losses to a power and desalination plant in Oman following damage to the stator’s windings. This required a detailed review of the impact on the major overhaul schedule and the change in the risk profile of the GT’s engine operating hours following the incident
- In addition to the above completed cases, set out below is a summary of relevant ongoing instructions:
- Damage to a column fractionator resulted in a reduction in output to a condensate refinery in the UAE, and a claim for lost gross profit and increased costs of working
- An explosion at a state-owned tolling refinery in Ghana resulted in damage to the crude distillation unit, and significant business interruption losses claimed at U.S. $50 million
- Advance loss of profit claim due to delays suffered by a solar power plant under construction in Morocco
- Failure of the GT transformers at a power plant in Pakistan during the Earl Power Operation Period resulted in initial outages and a potential delay in the full commissioning of the plant. We are reviewing both the business interruption and delayed startup claim
- Clive has been appointed as an expert witness and provided testimony for disputes in the Middle East
- Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (FCA), fellow
