Belgian owner Euronav believes it will emerge unscathed from an English appeal court hearing into an alleged tanker fraud.
TradeWinds reported in September last year that Italian lender UniCredit had been given leave to appeal in the High Court fight with the company over an alleged cargo misdelivery.
A court decision in April 2022 went in favour of the Belgium shipowner in the $24.7m damages row.
In its annual report on Thursday, the shipowner said the appeal hearing took place on 28 and 29 March.
“Management believes that it has followed well-established standard working practices and that it has valid defence arguments,” the company added.
And Euronav said: “Based on external legal advice, management believes that it has strong arguments that the risk of an outflow is less than probable and therefore no provision is recognised.”
A claim was submitted in January 2021 by the Italian lender in London relating to a fuel oil cargo carried by Euronav’s 161,000-dwt suezmax Sienna (built 2007) in 2020.
The bank had financed the purchase by Gulf Petrochem of 80,000 tonnes of low sulphur fuel oil from BP.
UniCredit and Gulf Petrochem agreed that the cargo would be resold to sub-buyers on terms that required those sub-buyers to pay UniCredit directly.
BP had initially chartered the vessel from Euronav and was the shipper under the bill of lading (BoL).
The charter required Euronav to discharge the cargo without production of the BoL if requested by the charterer.
No bill produced
After Gulf Petrochem paid BP via a letter of credit issued by UniCredit, a novation agreement was entered into by BP, Euronav and Gulf Petrochem that made the Middle East company the vessel’s charterer.
Euronav then discharged the cargo without production of the BoL but the sums financed by UniCredit were not repaid by Gulf Petrochem or the sub-buyers.
UniCredit became the lawful holder of the BoL after the unloading.
The bank then filed a claim for breach of a contract of carriage because Euronav delivered the cargo without production of the bill.
The claim was rejected by the UK court, which ruled the BoL did not contain any contract of carriage at the time of discharge.
The court found the document was a mere receipt since BP was also the voyage charterer at that time.
Euronav said Gulf Petrochem is part of GP Global.
“The GP Global group is currently under a restructuring plan and any recourse under the letter of indemnity issued by Gulf Petrochem is therefore doubtful,” the tanker owner added.
