NLNG Secures US Court Order Against Arrest of Vessel, LNG FINIMA

The Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited and one of its wholly owned subsidiaries, Bonny Gas Transport (BGT) Limited, have secured an order of a court in New York, the United States of America, against the arrest or attachment of one of the NLNG’s vessels, LNG FINIMA.NLNG said in a statement on Monday that steps had been taken before the court in New York to protect LNG FINIMA and other assets from arrest or attachment by some claimants.

The company’s General Manager in charge of External Relations Division, Dr. Kudo Eresia-Eke, said in the statement that the competing claimants were seeking payment for the same parcel of fuel delivered to LNG FINIMA, after insolvency of OW Bunker, a company contracted to render the services, left the physical supplier unpaid.

“The invoiced amount is being paid into Court to be released to the party adjudged entitled to receive it, and in the meantime no steps can be taken against any Bonny Gas or NLNG assets,” he said.

“This renders redundant an arrest order obtained last week by the physical supplier in Louisiana, and operations in the Bonny Gas fleet should be able to continue normally and without interruption by any of the competing claimants,” he added.

Though Eresia-Eke did not provide details of the transactions, THISDAY gathered that a United States marine fuel supplier, NuStar Energy Services, had been given a go-ahead to arrest LNG FINIMA due to unpaid bills by OW Bunker.

NuStar Energy, which is one of the largest creditors of OW Bunker’s US units, secured an order from a US federal court in Louisiana to arrest the vessel, which is currently enroute to the United States Gulf of Mexico.
Nustar is believed to be owed almost $2.46 million for about 3,600 metric tonnes of fuel delivered in October 2014, which the company said in court documents that LNG FINIMA should pay.

A Louisiana-based law, Kean Miller, argued in the court documents that “by signing and stamping the marine-fuel delivery notes, the vessel’s officers and representatives acted on behalf of the vessel and her owner and/or operator to procure bunkers, and thereby accepted the bunkers on behalf of, inter alia, the vessel”.

OW Bunker is one of the Danish group companies that are currently under formal Danish bankruptcy proceedings, with John Sommer Schmidt and Pernille Bigaard, as bankruptcy trustees.

Other affected companies include, OW Bunker & Trading; OW Bunker Supply & Trading; OW Cargo Denmark; Wrist Marine Supplies; and Dynamic Oil Trading.

OW Bunker is a global supplier of marine fuel founded in Denmark in 1980 with operations in 29 countries, including the world’s busiest and most important ports.

Before the current bankruptcy proceedings, the company which operates as a physical distributor as well as a reseller of bunker, holds a global market share of about seven per cent.

It has over 600 employees globally and operates a fleet of around 30 modern vessels, serving over 2,900 customers in around 130 countries.

Source: ThisDay