Norient Product Pool has filed a lawsuit in Delaware seeking to seize assets of Nigerian trader Taleveras Group over unpaid tanker charter hire.
The case seeks to grab some $1.27m in Taleveras assets held in the US state to cover a UK judgment that has allegedly gone unpaid.
Taleveras has become a regular target of lawsuits in US courts, with at least four filed this year in Delaware alone.
The Danish operator claims that Taleveras and a subsidiary failed to pay nearly $2.11m after a voyage charter for Norient’s 37,200-dwt products and chemical tanker Baltic Soul (built 2001).
Then, Taleveras struck an agreement to resolve the dispute but later failed to pay up on that agreement, legal papers allege. Once Norient sued in the UK, Taleveras paid some of the debt, but Norient is still trying to collect on the rest.
Norient chartered the Baltic Soul to Taleveras affiliate Tadema Shipping & Logistics in 2014 for a voyage from Antwerp to Nigeria.
The ship’s charter, which involved carry gasoline, was guaranteed by the Nigerian parent company.
Norient is joined in the case by the German limited partnership (KG) owner of the Baltic Soul. It is represented by law firms Young, Conaway, Stargatt & Taylor and Freehill Hogan and Mahar.
A lawyer for Taleveras was not immediately available for comment.
