With attempts to enforce its award temporarily frustrated in Mauritius, Betamax moved the battle to India.
At the beginning of December, it obtained an attachment order against a 40,000-tonne cargo of petroleum as it was being loaded onboard Eastern Pacific Shipping’s Pacific Diamond.
The High Court of Karnataka ruled that as Mauritius' State Trading Corp (STC) became the official consignee the moment the cargo was loaded onto the vessel, Betamax could seize it as security. The court ordered the New Mangalore Port Trust to refrain from issuing clearance papers for the ship as long as the cargo remained onboard.
Legal sources tell TradeWinds that the cargo was pumped back onshore several days later and the Pacific Diamond moved to an anchorage. But the port trust still refused to grant the ship clearance even though it was now cargo-free and had at no time been under any attachment or arrest order.
The matter then appears to have shifted to higher political levels. At a hearing on 11 December, India’s Additional Solicitor General Shri Prabhuling Navadgi put in a surprise appearance on behalf of the Indian government. He claimed that the attachment was leaving Mauritius in danger of running out of petroleum and was detrimental to bilateral trade relations.
EasternThe attachment was lifted after supplier Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals (MRP) submitted an affidavit saying its contract with STC was to continue until June 2019.
Provided that MRP agreed to consign the cargoes only to STC, the court was prepared to consider an ongoing arrangement that would allow it to attach a cargo at a later date if needs be.
