Bankers, their lawyers and Sri Lankan authorities are on the hunt for a GP Global-chartered aframax tanker and its fuel oil cargo after an effort to arrest the ship came up empty handed.
Officers of the Sri Lanka Port Authority (SLPA) are looking for the 107,200-dwt Kutch Bay (built 1997) after a struggle to serve arrest papers at Galle anchorage in Sri Lanka.
"It's quite clear that the vessel is on the run," said a source involved in the arrest effort, who added that the ship's master resisted efforts by officials to board, but the papers were fixed to the vessel's hull.
"They weren't able to board the vessel but it is formally and legally under arrest," said the source, who declined to be identified in print.
He said the vessel is being monitored and authorities are waiting for it to re-enter Sri Lankan waters.
The vessel's charterer, troubled Dubai bunkerer GP Global, did not immediately respond to a request for comment directed to joint managing director Prerit Goel on the UBS claim.
The Dubai office of legal giant Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW) and Sri Lankan law firm DL&F De Saram, acting for Swiss bank UBS as cargo financier, are chasing a $26m claim linked to the ship and GP Global, the former Gulf Petrochem.
A partner of HFW Dubai declined to confirm his firm's involvement or his client's identity.
Captain Nirmal Silva, the national harbourmaster of Sri Lanka, confirmed to TradeWinds on Monday that his officers at the port of Galle had attempted to arrest the vessel after the marshal of the High Court of Sri Lanka issued an arrest order.
The elderly aframax disappeared from AIS position reports late last week.
Reference sources list Alphabet Maritime as owner of the single ship, with management in the hands of Silver Star Ship Management of Mumbai. A Mr Krishnakant, identified as Alphabet's owner, could not immediately be reached for comment.
Officials of Silver Star said they have had technical management of the ship since April and told TradeWinds they have received no information from the owner about an arrest. "The ship is now in the Colombo [area] awaiting instructions," said Silver Star managing director Senthil Kumar.
Other commercial sources told TradeWinds that UBS financed a fuel oil cargo that the ship loaded at Fujairah before proceeding to Sri Lanka where the botched arrest occurred.
In August, TradeWinds reported a scrapping sale of the Kutch Bay for $358 per ldt, which works out to $5.97m for the 16,701-ldt tanker. But sources with insight into the sale said delivery to a cash buyer is pending the discharge of the ship's fuel oil cargo.
TradeWinds reported earlier this month on the arrest at Pipavav of GP Global's 6,200-dwt bunker tanker GP B3 (built 2010), first by mortgagee National Bank of Fujairah and then by technical manager Celestial Ship Management.
TradeWinds reported in July on an announcement by GP Global that it planned to restructure.
In the statement, the company denied that it was in difficulties after failing to get full financial support from its lenders. The company announcement said GP Global was the "victim of blatant lies" being spread by "vested interests who do not wish to see us succeed".
GP Global said it was confident it would attract new investment to "help us tide away from the current tight cash position, which puts us in the same position as many other surviving peers in the global trading industry".
