Bank Guarantee News

Mumbai and Nhava Sheva Ship Agents Association (MANSA) has requested the Mumbai Port Trust to re-consider the proposed bank guarantee amount levied on vessels calling at the port. In a letter addressed to the Mumbai Port Trust, MANSA said, “The time given for introducing this change may be extended till January 2017 end in view of the prevailing state of the banking to cope with work of demonetization and after effect. Earlier, Mumbai Port Trust in its circular dated December 14, 2016 had proposed to revise bank guarantee to be submitted by vessel agents at Rs 15 lakhs for foreign going vessels, Rs 5 lakhs for coastal vessels and Rs 2 lakh for container vessels, effective December 31 with a validity period of three years.

Swiber Offshore Construction, part of troubled Singapore oilfield services firm Swiber Holdings, has received an interim court order to halt payment of bank guarantees for projects it was involved in, a stock exchange filing showed. Parent company Swiber Holdings last month applied to place itself under judicial management, after initially filing for liquidation, becoming the largest local company to fall victim to the slump in oil prices. Judicial management allows for a company to be nursed back to health under the supervision of the Singapore Court.

Banks sell Imtech Traffic & Infra; sale of Imtech Germany launched. The administrators and creditors of collapsed Dutch engineering services firm Royal Imtech pressed on with the forced sale of its businesses to raise funds to settle its bills. The sale of the German unit started on Tuesday, with insolvency administrator Peter-Alexander Borchardt saying he had already received more than 40 expressions of interest. Imtech Germany filed for insolvency on Aug. 6, and the parent company followed suit a week later, capping a long slide that began in 2013 after accounting irregularities were uncovered at its Polish and German operations. The group has since hastily sold operations representing 43 percent of its revenues.

Fastnet, the UK and Irish listed E&P company focussed on near term exploration and appraisal acreage in Morocco and the Celtic Sea, announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Pathfinder Hydrocarbon Ventures Limited (Pathfinder) has entered into an amended exclusive option agreement with Oil and Gas Investments Funds (OGIF) (the "Option Agreement"), in relation to eight Exploration Permits comprising the Tendrara Lakbir Petroleum Agreement (the Tendrara Licence) onshore Morocco. Following substantive negotiations with its partner OGIF, Fastnet has secured improved commercial terms from those previously announced on 29 May 2013. ·     The deadline to drill the first well has been extended from 30 September 2014 to 21 April 2015.

Lawyers for the Arctic 30 have started to lodge applications with Russia's Investigative Committee seeking exit visas for the non-Russian nationals. If the applications are approved, the foreign nationals would be allowed to leave Russia to await ongoing investigations into their Greenpeace International Arctic oil drilling protest. All of the foreign nationals, 26 people from 17 nations, have had their passports returned to them after their release on bail from detention last month.

The Dutch Foreign Ministry has finalised a bank guarantee of 3.6 million euros in compliance with a binding ruling by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) ordering Russia to release the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise and the Arctic 30 protesters. "The Netherlands has now fulfilled its part of the Tribunal's binding order and Russia is obligated to also comply by releasing the ship and the Arctic 30, as the Tribunal so ordered. The Tribunal has ordered both Russia and the Netherlands to report back on progress with their compliance by December 2.

ITIC has warned shipping intermediaries to be on the look-out for cleverly forged documents which could result in them being held liable for substantial claims by cargo interests. In the latest issue of its Claims Review, ITIC refers to the case of a Belgian ship agent which released six containers of castor oil valued at $270,000 against a fraudulent bill of lading. The containers were to be shipped from India to Belgium, and although the bill of lading against which the ship agent released the cargo to the consignee appeared at first glance to be genuine, it was in fact a clever forgery. The shipper claimed that it had not been paid for the cargo, for which it still held the original bills of lading.

Short sea RoPax ferry operators DFDS cancel contracts for two RoRo freight ships from Gernan shipyard in liquidation. DFDS say that the  contracts worth DKK 1.0-billion are cancelled on account of the shipyard’s breach of several terms of the contracts, while the payments that have been made to the shipyard are covered by a bank guarantee.
 The consequences of the cancellation of the contracts for DFDS’ future tonnage requirements cannot at this stage be determined with a reasonable level of certainty. Likewise, the amount of any one-off costs that may result from the cancellation cannot yet be determined by DFDS. The newbuildings were included in DFDS’ expectation for investments for 2012 with an amount of DKK 450m.

Eidesvik has entered into sales agreements of US$ 64 million for the two supply vessels Viking Surf (built 2002) and Viking Thaumas (built 2005). Both vessels are employed on contracts in Brazil. The deliveries of the vessels are expected to take place in the first half of May 2012. The company will record a gain of approximately 77 million Kroner. A seller credit of US$ 12 million is established in connection with the transaction. The credit is secured by a bank guarantee and will be repaid by 12 installments during the next 12 months. The transaction will give a positive net liquidity of US$ 32 million after mortgages have been paid. Simultaneously Eidesvik has entered into an agreement for buying a supply vessel, a UT 755L built at STX Aukra Norway in 2004, for US$ 24 million.

The Spanish Ministry of Public Works and the Economy has invited tenders for participation in three cabotage trades, involving Ceuta/Melilla, the Canary Islands, and the Balearic Islands. Interested bidders have to guarantee to transport passengers, vehicles and goods on the routes over a five-year period. The ministry has calculated individual budgets for the three routes, ranging from 8.5m euros to 37m euros. Aspirants, who will have to provide a bank guarantee to cover failure, have until November 30 to apply. The successful bids will be announced on December 10. Source: Maritime Advocate Online

The London P&I Club has warned its members about a spate of vessel arrests in Egypt, and in particular the port of Suez, in respect of claims for unsettled invoices in respect of supplies and/or services which have supposedly been provided to vessels. Writing in the latest issue of its StopLoss Bulletin, the Club says that, although suppliers have submitted false invoices with apparently authentic signatures of ship's staff and the ship's stamp, in most instances the master has been unable to explain how these have been affixed to the invoice. In other cases, invoices have been completely forged. Suppliers and their lawyers have also ordered the arrest of vessels as security in some instances.

Croatian-based shipyard, 3.MAJ Brodogradilište, delivered the first of a contracted four-part tanker series this past August. Named M/T Margara, the 71,345-tdw oil tanker was constructed for Monte Carlo based owners subsidiary Doria Shipping Co., registered in Valetta, Malta. The $150 million contract for the vessels' construction was signed in March 1997, with a term loan facility arranged by Merrill Lynch Intl. of London, who provided financing during construction. The Croatian Government, who arranged for a counter bank guarantee to be obtained from Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development, provided additional assistance. The Maltese-flagged, ABS-classed vessel, which is intended for transportation of crude oil and oil products, measures 750 ft. (228.5 m) with a gt of 40,705.