Singapore operator GML Chartering is $565,000 out of pocket after an Indian court overturned the arrest of a Eurobulk Asia ultramax that it seized to try to claw back an unpaid bunker bill from the sub-charterer of an unaffiliated bulker.
GML obtained an arrest warrant against the bunkers on board the 63,100-dwt Alexandros P (built 2017) last Friday by claiming it was a sister ship of a non-Eurobulk-owned vessel it was in a dispute with, as both ships were chartered to the same entity.
Under Indian maritime law it is the ship the disputed bunkers are on board that is arrested, as there is no provision to seize just the bunkers.
Manila-based Eurobulk Asia, part of the stable of companies controlled by Greek shipowner Aristides Pittas, is the manager of the Alexandros P, which trades in the fleet of EuroDry.
GML’s legal problems began in October 2023 when it sub-chartered the 56,800-dwt Seamec Nidhi (built 2010) — a bulker it had on time charter from United Arab Emirates shipowner Seamec International — to Dubai-based Hilf Shipping.
Hilf sub-chartered the Seamec Nidhi to an entity called Ocean Connection, which promptly fuelled up the ship with bunkers procured from Dubai-based supplier Oilmar.
In February this year, Seamec International sold the Seamec Nidhi to Skyline International Shipping of Hong Kong, which renamed it Venetia.
The Venetia was subsequently arrested in Egypt by Oilmar, which claimed it was still owed $406,000 for the bunkers that had been supplied to the ship at Ocean Connection's request the previous October.
Seamec, under pressure from Skyline, chased GML as head charterer for the outstanding amount.
Having had no luck obtaining the cash from Hilf Shipping, or Ocean Connection, GML finally agreed to pay the money owed to Oilmar and go after Hilf through arbitration.
This is where Eurobulk Asia’s Alexandros P got caught up in this legal mess.
The Alexandros P was on charter to Hilf Shipping when it showed up in the north-west Indian port of Okha on 7 October. GML petitioned the High Court of Gujarat in Ahmedabad to arrest the bunkers on the ship as security for the arbitration proceeding by claiming it was a sister vessel because Hilf was its charterer.
Justice Mauna M Bhatt issued the arrest warrant based on the submissions made by GML.
However, documents were quickly submitted to the court on Monday by the two defendant companies showed that the ship was on time charter to Hilf, and not on a bareboat charter, which in legal terms is referred to as a demise charter.
Under Indian maritime law, a vessel can be considered as a sister, or associated, vessel only if it is has the same head owner. An exception exists for vessels under bareboat/demise charter, but such beneficial ownership has to be proven through documentation that shows that they beneficially owned by the same demise charterer on the same day that the arrest is granted.
Hilf Shipping was represented by advocates Sukumar Tirthani and Pranoy Kottaram of Thirthani Legal, senior advocate Devang Nanavati acting as senior counsel
Ultra One Shipping, the registered owner of the of the Alexandos P was represented by Shashank Agrawal of SSA Legal, with Parth Contractor acting a senior counsel.
Justice Bhatt vacated the arrest on Monday 14 October and ordered that the ship be released immediately.
Agrawal and Contractor told TradeWinds the Alexandros P’s owner will “vigorously pursue the plaintiffs for wrongful arrest and consequent damages in appropriate jurisdictions”.
GML managing director Shoyeb Akter Nizam could not immediately be reached for comment on Tuesday.
