Russian oil trader Litasco has had two Palmali tankers arrested over non-payment of bunker bills.
The subsidiary of energy group Lukoil has seized the 19,800-dwt Bozdag (built 2002) in Tallinn, Estonia, and the sistership Natig Aliyev in Denmark.
Litasco confirmed the arrests to TradeWinds but declined to comment further.
TradeWinds understands that more than one party has moved against Natig Aliyev in Aalbaek Bay.
Twelve Russian crew on the ship left last month, according to inspector Morten Bach from the International Transport Workers' Union (ITF), who was cited by the DR website.
Crew were paid overdue wages following a visit by the Danish Maritime Authority, Bach added.
Palmali has not responded to a request for comment.
Legal history between the companies
Last September, Palmali launched a near-$2bn legal action against Litasco.
The Turkish company, controlled by Azeri tycoon Mubariz Mansimov, said the claim has been lodged at the UK high court, according to Reuters.
“The claim concerns an alleged failure by Litasco to provide contractual quantities of cargo under long-term contract between the companies,” Palmali said.
It added the case involved “breach of contract amounting to just under $2bn plus interest and costs.”
But the action has insufficient legal grounds, Lukoil president Vagit Alekperov has said.
"I think the company's position is pretty strong. The statements that Palmali has made are legally groundless," he added.
Palmali is contesting a long-term contract that ran between 2005 and 2015.
"They interpret it in their own way" said Alekperov. "But we have documents from 2015 in which Palmali states that it has no complaints against our company.
"All the documents are there. We of course will present everything via the courts."
Arrests denied
In January, Azerbaijan's national oil company Socar contradicted reports it had seized 14 Palmali tankers over debts.
Turkish media claimed the vessels were confiscated, but the APA news agency cited Socar spokesman Ibrahim Ahmedov as saying it had not carried out such an action against the company.
Last year, Palmali sold 10 ships to Socar, including five aframaxes, two suezmaxes and an LPG carrier.
Socar Trading formed a new shipping arm, United Maritime Logistics (UML), to handle all the state oil group's chartering requirements after it terminated a 10-year-old transport deal with Palmali.
Socar, a major customer, had previously loaned $120m to Palmali.
