OCIL membership holds steady despite lower limits and rating

HAMILTON, Bermuda—The excess liability insurance unit of the OIL Group of Cos.--Oil Casualty Insurance Ltd.--also held its annual general meeting of shareholders last month, during which it elected new directors and reviewed the operations of the company in 2006.

James F. Hughes III was elected chairman for OCIL and Mark Wilson was named vice chairman.

Senior Vp and Chief Operating Officer Jerry Rivers noted that despite its downgrade out of the A range last November by New York-based Standard & Poor's Corp.--along with a move by OCIL to drop its limits and increase attachment points--no shareholder members have submitted notification of their intent to leave the structure.

OCIL currently has 75 shareholders with $1.4 billion in assets.

Under a new underwriting strategy deployed to reduce financial statement volatility, policy limits will be reduced to a maximum of $100 million on all policies effective on or after June 1, Mr. Rivers said.

As of Nov. 30, 2006, average limits written by OCIL were $117 million, while in the prior-year period they were $121 million, according to a company statement.

Additionally, as of Jan. 1, the average attachment stood at $293 million, up from $273 million in 2006 and $247 million in 2005, the statement said.