An Arne Blystad-controlled company has arrested an MR2 tanker that was until recently in its own fleet in a previously unpublicised dispute with the financial owner, an affiliate of troubled Croatian shipbuilder Brodotrogir.
The 49,700-dwt Songa Pride (built 2016) was idle off Mexico after a five-year bareboat charter to Songa Product & Chemical III expired in May, but shipowner Trogir Maritime for unknown reasons was unwilling to take redelivery.
Blystad's Songa Shipping has remained in control as technical manager, with no one to hand the ship over to. In September, the tanker made way for Gibraltar, where lawyers for Blystad's Songa group arrested it upon arrival on Monday.
Trogir Maritime, linked to the financially troubled Brodotrogir yard controlled by Danko Koncar's Kermas Energija, still names on its website Blystad as its partner in connection with the Songa Pride and a sistership.
A representative of Trogir Maritime did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It remained unknown whether the shipowner has counterclaims in the dispute.
The Songa Pride was under charter since delivery from the yard to Songa Product & Chemical III, part of Blystad's Songa Shipholding.
The same tanker owning entity also formerly had on charter a sistership, the 49,700-dwt Trogir Kairos I (built 2015), which traded as the Songa Fortune until redelivery late last year. That ship has been idle in the Adriatic since June, according to AIS data.
TradeWinds reported in 2013 that Brodotrogir had announced the Norwegian owner's order of the two tankers, but the exposure has now emerged as more limited than direct ownership.
In a statement to TradeWinds, a Songa group executive said the arrest was in order to secure its claims as former charterer against the ship's registered owning company.
"We terminated our bareboat charter of the Songa Pride in May 2021," said the executive in the statement.
He added that the ship's owner has not assumed management, and a Songa crew remains on board to maintain the vessel's safety.
"Our efforts to find a commercial solution were not answered, leaving us no option but to arrest the vessel," the source said.
"We cannot divulge the amount claimed under the former charter, nor the basis for our claims, except that we believe in our case. We can only state for now that there is a strong disagreement of views with her registered owners."
The Blystad-controlled shipowning company expressed concern that the arrest action should be understood correctly in the market.
"We have a long-standing reputation as a responsible owner/operator group," the executive said in the statement.
"Our reputation is based not only on our commercial successes, but fundamentally on our key uncompromised values and policies. We have taken all measures to ensure that this arrest is compliant with our policies and commitments."
Croatian press reports in April said that the Brodotrogir shipyard had not paid creditors for 137 days.
But a yard representative told TradeWinds at that time: "The shipyard is not in bankruptcy and has no outstanding liabilities to be put into bankruptcy."
