A small product tanker that Norway blocked from discharging in the summer has wound up in the fleet of a new Russian owner, private bunkerer Scadar.
Murmansk shipowner Vladislav Boyarskiy confirmed the deal. He told TradeWinds his company paid $5.7m for the 4,600-dwt Dumankaya (built 2007), which is to be renamed Marinstraum.
TradeWinds reported in August that the southern Norwegian port of Tonsberg had denied the ship permission to discharge, in a dispute over when it had left the Russian flag.
The sale gives Scadar a fleet of three small clean tankers equipped for Arctic high-seas bunkering of fishing vessels, also used for harbour bunkering and for straight trading between Murmansk and Arkhangelsk in east Russia in the off-season.
The physical bunker supply company is owned by Boyarskiy and three colleagues.
The price they paid looks like a bargain now. But they considered it a premium figure when it was agreed in June.
Nor did the sale have anything to do with August’s dispute between its previous operator and the Norwegian government, which happened after the sale was already contracted.
“We started negotiations in May and signed the sale memorandum in June,” Boyarskiy said.
“I decided to pay a little bit more to speed up the deal — $5.7m was about half a million over the market. But because of the special military operation in Ukraine, I thought ship prices would go up.
“And I was right. Especially for Russians right now, it is hard to buy a ship. So now I think I got a bargain deal.”
The ship has previously been reported as owned by Turkey’s Besiktas. However, TradeWinds understands that Besiktas managed it for another Turkish investor.
The Dumankaya had been on long-term bareboat charter to Russian oil major Rosneft but was redelivered in May 2021, leaving the Russian flag eight months before the invasion of Ukraine.
It then spent nearly a year idle at a Turkish shipyard before the owner reflagged it and reclassed it for European operations, where it proved unneeded.
It was only after Scadar paid its deposit on the ship that it ran into problems at Tonsberg in August, delaying its contractual handover.
“We decided to extend the delivery date because of the Norwegian situation,” Boyarskiy said.
After anchoring in Danish waters and waiting for Norwegian authorities to change their mind, the operator gave up and discharged at Ghent in Belgium before sailing to Murmansk for the delivery.
“The ship was actually never under any sanctions, there was only a decision by a Norwegian government official not to let it discharge. And I am sure [the Turkish owner] will get compensation from Norway,” said Boyarskiy.
The Dumankaya has been idle at a Murmansk berth since arriving at the end of August.
“In Russia, we have a lot of complications in shifting from one class society to another,” Boyarskiy said. “A lot of documentation. We had originally intended to keep the ship under Bureau Veritas but we have had to switch to the Russian Register because of the Ukraine situation.”
He expects to be able to trade the ship next week.
