A charter dispute between Eastern Pacific Shipping and DS Marine that briefly shut Cameroon’s only refinery has been resolved, tanker market sources say.
A stand-off over charter payments that left Eastern Pacific’s 105,600-dwt Barents Sea (built 2000) swinging at anchor for weeks with a full cargo has ended, and the ship has begun discharging.
The issue jumped to public attention this week with reports in the Cameroon press that state-backed Sonara had closed the refinery due to a shortage of oil.
Eastern Pacific, which was owed a reported $850,000 in charter payments, refused to deliver the crude cargo before the charterer paid up.
The move followed a buildup of events in the months since DS Marine chartered the tanker last August, sources explain.
This was complicated by a scheduled maintenance shutdown at the refinery, which overran and only reopened in December.
While Eastern Pacific relet the ship for a period in the interim, it loaded crude in Nigeria in November to deliver to Cameroon under charter to DS Marine.
By the time the ship arrived to deliver the cargo, DS Marine was in arrears with the charter payments, resulting in what one source described as a “classic stand-off”.
AIS data shows the Barents Sea had been anchored off Cameroon since 15 December. However, today the ship began discharging with the process expected to be completed on Thursday.
The Barents Sea is the oldest aframax in the near 100 ship trading fleet of Idan Ofer’s Eastern Pacific.
According to VesselsValue, the fleet - spanning the gas, bulker, tanker and container sectors - is worth over $4.6bn.
The company also has 23 newbuildings worth an extra $1.8bn, VesselsValue says.
