A 13-year-old aframax at the centre of a legal battle involving Greece’s Vafias group, Turkey’s Karamehmet family and commodity giant Glencore has been sold for demolition in South America at a deep discount to current market levels.
Shipowning sources and brokers in Athens said the 104,500-dwt CV Stealth (built 2005) was sold “as is” in Trinidad for $193 per ldt.
That yields just $3.5m for the Greek ship’s registered owner, Vafias-linked Psara Energy. The average demolition value for aframaxes currently stands at about $7.5m, according to Clarksons.
The price is understood to reflect the poor condition of the ship.
Psara said as recently as July that the ship was effectively beyond repair after a detention of more than two years in Venezuela.
The vessel was out of class, its engine was not working and it suffered significant damage all around.
Venezuelan police detained the vessel at Puerto La Cruz in September 2014, while it was under a subcharter to Glencore-controlled ST Shipping & Transport.
Stolen oil
Authorities said the ship’s voyage charterer was planning to use the unit to load stolen oil.
A Venezuelan man was later arrested for forging a document from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
The detention gave rise to a legal row between Psara, charterers Geden Holdings and Glencore.
Venezuelan authorities released the CV Stealth in October 2017 after its cargo dispute was settled. However, the ship was not redelivered before March 2018, when it arrived in Trinidad under tow.
The formerly ABS-classed tanker has remained at anchor off Port of Spain since then.
Litigation around the CV Stealth case continues to this day.
