An Indian court has ordered an arrested tanker to discharge its fuel oil cargo.
But the master of the 11,479-dwt Sol (built 2007) and his crew are following trade union legal advice by refusing to carry out any commercial operations until they are paid their back wages.
The ship is under arrest by multiple parties at the anchorage of Hazira port in Gujarat state, where its unpaid crew faces the threat of arrest for contempt of court.
Oleo won an 11 July order from the high court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad to discharge some 2,960 tonnes of fuel oil to shore tanks or tank lorries.
Amit Dingwani, head of operations and shipping at cargo owner Oleo Energy, told TradeWinds that the crew faces the risk of being held in contempt of court if it does not comply.
“We are an innocent party caught in a battle between owners, P&I insurers and the crew,” he said.
He pointed to the danger of environmental pollution if the ship runs short of bunkers. He denied that the crew holds any lien on the cargo.
The master of the Sol sees the matter differently.
“We are doing as John Wood of the ITF instructs us,” captain Asad bin Sayeed told TradeWinds, referring to International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) consultant John Wood.
“We will not undertake commercial operations until the wages are paid. That is the position of the crew and their master.”
Checking for guns in the groceries
Meanwhile, bin Sayeed also believes that long bureaucratic delays in delivering food and water to the ship in the Indian port have to do with its having Pakistani seafarers on board.
But he confirmed to TradeWinds on late Monday that he had just received a shipment of two months’ worth of provisions from his employer Global Radiance Ship Management.
The food and water had already arrived on Sunday but authorities required extensive security checks before they could be delivered.
The ITF’s Wood, who is coordinating the union response to the case, told TradeWinds the supplies had to be sourced from Chennai and brought expensively by tug to Hazira only to face the hold-up.
“I’m gobsmacked that you would need permission to give food to starving people,” he said.
Bin Sayeed said that some of the perishables were the worse for the wait but that he had received basically all the urgent supplies he had requested.
“I suppose they were looking for hidden weapons for my Pakistani crew,” he said.
Legally abandoned
The Sol’s crew is caught in the middle of a complex dispute among owner Saint James Shipping, mortgage holder EnTrust Global, charterer and cargo receiver Oleo Energy, protection and indemnity insurer the American Club, Singapore-based Global Radiance Ship Management, bunkerers and other suppliers, the ITF and Indian authorities.
The ship is currently uninsured. The American Club cancelled its P&I cover on 8 June, but the crew still enjoys the right to support under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC).
Some 13 crew members have gone unpaid for over two months, and under the MLC that makes them legally abandoned and gives them a right to four months’ wages and repatriation at the lub’s expense, plus upkeep until repatriation.
“We are well aware of our obligations and responsibilities under the MLC, and we are dealing with all the Saint James Shipping ships and following local rules and local authorities’ instructions, and that takes time,” said Daniel Tadros, chief legal officer of the American Club.
Optimistic owner
Some who spoke to TradeWinds expressed a degree of exasperation both with local bureaucratic holdups to support of the crews and with the ITF’s accusations that the Club was not doing its part.
The Sol is one of four vessels in the fleet of London and Athens-based Saint James Shipping that are financed by EnTrust and targeted for arrest after allegedly chronic defaults. The others are the 18,041-dwt Aeon (built 2012), the 17,475-dwt Ariana (built 2016), and the 13,554-dwt Lua (built 2010).
Saint James principal Sam Tariverdi underscored to TradeWinds that none of the four ships have been repossessed, and only the Sol and the Aeon have been arrested.
Tariverdi said his company is working on a deal with lender EnTrust and was also optimistic about renewing P&I cover with the American Club soon.
An official with the club was unwilling to comment on that prospect.
An EnTrust official did not respond to requests for comment.
