Capital Ship Management tanker released from arrest in Singapore

Athens-based Capital Ship Management Corporation has confirmed that the crude oil tanker Andronikos (ex-Anbar) was promptly released from arrest in Singapore after the owners’ P&I club posted security and has resumed trading.

Capital said in a statement dated March 19 that Andronikos, together with an additional five vessels, were redelivered after Iraqi company Al-Iraqia Shipping Services and Oil Trading (AISSOT) gave notice of termination of the bareboat charters for those vessels on February 22, 2020, in what were then dire spot market conditions. At the time that AISSOT terminated the charter, Andronikos had approximately another six years duration remaining under that bareboat charter party.

Capital claims that, at the time of the termination, the charter rates published by established shipbrokers for a five-year time charter, adjusted for bareboat business by excluding OPEX, were below the rate under the relevant charter party, demonstrating that at the time of redelivery, AISSOT had suffered no damages, and it was instead hoping to make a gain by redelivering the vessels. However, in its evidence before the Singapore court, AISSOT presented rates which it described as a “Fearnleys Bareboat Charter Assessment,” which were not only misleading, but also transpired to be just informal email correspondence between an AISSOT executive and a Fearnleys shipbroker, and which were used in court proceedings without Fearnleys’ prior knowledge or authority.

The owners of Andronikos wish to advise that, having promptly obtained the release of the vessel, they shall now pursue appropriate sanctions against AISSOT and its relevant executives.