Lebanese shipowner Ghassan Ghandour’s Hermes Marine Management has become embroiled in a legal dispute with US commodities giant Koch Industries after a VLCC charter deal ended in an acrimonious manner.
Koch Shipping, the Singapore shipping unit of Koch Supply & Trading, arrested the Hermes-managed 320,000-dwt tanker Chloe V (built 2011) in Singapore two weeks ago against a SGD 8m ($5.9m) claim.
Details that have since emerged in court documents indicate that the long-term time charter for the Chloe V that Hermes and Koch agreed in August 2018 did not end in a mutually agreeable manner.
Koch’s claim not only includes alleged losses, damages and expenses arising from charterparty breaches, it is also suing for reimbursement of costs allegedly arising out of or in connection with the installation of a scrubber that it supplied to the vessel as part of the agreement.
The amount claimed includes installation and equipment costs, together with Koch’s share of the cost of the scrubber at the time the charter was terminated.
Koch is also seeking reimbursement for bunkers that remained on board at the end of the charter.
Lawyers in Singapore acting for Chloe Navigation, the registered owner of the Chloe V, declined to comment on the case, citing the need to obtain instruction from the vessel’s owner.
Calls to Koch went unanswered.
Hermes is the plaintiff in another legal dispute with Affinity (Shipping) that has been playing out in a London court since February.
The shipowner is blaming the shipbroker for the collapse of a VLCC purchase in 2019.
