Nick Tattersall News

The blockage of the Suez Canal is likely to lead to large reinsurance claims, adding to upward pressure on marine reinsurance rates, James Vickers, chair of reinsurance broker Willis Re International, told Reuters.Formal investigations began this week into how the giant container ship Ever Given ran aground in the canal, shutting down shipping in the major global waterway for almost a week.The incident and its impact on hundreds of ships delayed in the canal would be a “large loss” for insurance market Lloyd’s of London…

Indonesia has recovered the cockpit voice recorder from a Sriwijaya Air jet that crashed into the Java Sea in January, and the air accident investigator said on Wednesday it could take up to a week to be able to listen to the recording.The CVR could help investigators understand the actions taken by the pilots of the doomed jet, which crashed shortly after take-off on Jan. 9, killing all 62 people on board.A preliminary report by investigators released in February said the plane had an imbalance in engine thrust that eventually led it into a sharp roll and then a final dive into the sea. The report included information from the flight…

A Lebanese shipbuilder at the center of a $2 billion debt scandal in Mozambique said it made payments to its now-president and ruling party in 2014, but said these were legal campaign donations not bribes, according to a London court filing.Privinvest said payments made to President Filipe Nyusi in the run-up to his election and to the Frelimo party were allowed under Mozambican law, according to the Jan. 15 filing at London’s High Court.The case relates to a series of tuna fishing…

The company that bought the ammonium nitrate which exploded in Beirut last August had possible links to two Syrian businessmen under U.S. sanctions for ties to President Bashar al-Assad, according to a report by a Lebanese journalist and London company filings.Savaro Ltd, the trading firm which procured the chemicals in 2013, shared a London address with companies linked to George Haswani and Imad Khoury, according to the report by documentary film-maker Firas Hatoum, which aired on Lebanon’s al-Jadeed TV station this week.Haswani…

In the murky story of how a cache of highly explosive ammonium nitrate ended up on the Beirut waterfront, one thing is clear—no one has ever publicly come forward to claim it.There are many unanswered questions surrounding last week's huge, deadly blast in the Lebanese capital, but ownership should be among the easiest to resolve.Clear identification of ownership, especially of a cargo as dangerous as that carried by the Moldovan-flagged Rhosus when it sailed into Beirut seven years ago, is fundamental to shipping, the key to insuring it and settling disputes that often arise.But Reuters interviews and trawls for documents across 10 countries in search of the original ownership of this 2…

EY, the court-appointed supervisor for Ocean Tankers Pte Ltd (OTPL), has proposed two restructuring options to the shipping company's owners and could meet with them as early as next week to discuss the plans, according to an EY report seen by Reuters.The discussions are to ascertain whether the owners - Lim Oon Kuin, his son Evan Lim Chee Meng and daughter Lim Huey Ching, or the Lim family - are "willing to support any future restructuring of OTPL", the report said.EY declined to comment. Its lawyers, Rajah and Tann did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Evan Lim, the director of Ocean Tankers, said in an email that the Lim family would make it known if it decided to release a statement on the report.

Two EY executives in Singapore have been appointed interim judicial managers of Ocean Tankers, the accounting firm said on Tuesday, following a Singapore court hearing to consider the shipping company's request to appoint independent managers.Ocean Tankers (Pte) Ltd (OTPL) is owned by the Lim family which also owns Singapore's oil trader Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd, itself placed under judicial management in April as it seeks to restructure billions of dollars of debt.Under judicial management, a court appoints independent managers to run the affairs of a financially distressed company in place of existing management, a move that is often…

Singaporean shipping firm Ocean Tankers (Pte) Ltd, a unit of troubled oil trader Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd, has applied to be placed under the management of a court-appointed supervisor, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.Singapore's High Court is due to hold a hearing on an application by Ocean Tankers on Tuesday, according to a notice on the Supreme Court website. The notice did not give further details.Hin Leong and Ocean Tankers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Hin Leong, one of Asia's top oil traders, was placed under judicial management late last month as it seeks to restructure billions of dollars of debt.Hin Leong owes $3.8 billion to 23 banks…

The Libyan coastguard intercepted a humanitarian rescue ship in the Mediterranean on Tuesday, ordering it to sail to Tripoli or risk being targeted, a Reuters photographer aboard said. The Golfo Azzurro ship operated by Spanish humanitarian organisation Proactiva Open Arms was repeatedly contacted by a Libyan coastguard vessel, according to radio transmissions heard by the photographer. "You are sailing in our waters for months now and you are conducting activities that are causing problems to Libyan state sovereignty," said a man who identified himself as part of the Libyan coastguard, speaking in English. "Therefore I ask you to alter your course towards Tripoli port. If you do not obey the orders right now... you will be targeted," the voice said.

Six Turkish members of a cargo ship's crew who were kidnapped by pirates off the coast of Nigeria two weeks ago have been released and are safely back in Istanbul, a lawyer for the shipping company said on Tuesday. "The six of them have been released and are back in Istanbul. All are in good health," said Fehmi Ulgener, a lawyer for the shipping firm Kaptanoglu Denizcilik. He declined to say whether or not a ransom had been paid. The Turks, who included the M/T Puli's captain, chief officer and chief engineer, were abducted some 90 miles off Nigeria on April 11. Other members of the crew were left onboard, unharmed. The tanker was carrying liquid chemical fuels and was travelling to Cameroon, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported.

Greek authorities have seized a freighter carrying an undeclared shipment of weapons en route from Turkey to Libya, coast guard officials said on Wednesday. A coast guard patrol boat raided the vessel on Tuesday, 20 nautical miles northeast of Crete. The freighter, with a crew of seven and which had sailed from the Turkish port of Iskenderun, was escorted to Heraklion port on the island. The United Nations has imposed an embargo on weapons shipments to Libya, which is plagued by factional conflict. "The ship's crew is being questioned and the content of its containers will be checked," a coast guard official said, declining to be named. The coast guard provided no further details of what kind of arms the freighter had on board, or its ownership.

Forces loyal to Libya's internationally recognised government said on Monday they shelled a Turkish ship off the Libyan coast after it was warned not to approach, and one crew member was killed in what Turkey described as a "contemptible attack". Libya is in a state of violent factional chaos with two rival governments backed by various armed groups vying for control of the oil-producing North African state including its ports, four years after rebels overthrew Muammar Gaddafi. The dry cargo ship was targeted about 10 miles from the coast on Sunday after it was told not to break a ban on approaching the eastern city of Derna, Libyan military spokesman Mohamed Hejazi told Reuters.

The United States welcomes an agreement between Iraq's central government in Baghdad and its northern Kurdistan region over the management of oil exports, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Saturday. Biden told an Atlantic Council summit in Istanbul that Washington also supported the development of an oil pipeline from Iraq's Basra to Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. (Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Dasha Afanasieva; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Jonny Hogg and Alison Williams)

Iraqi Kurdistan has shipped 8.8 million barrels of oil from the Turkish port of Ceyhan since May, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said, as the autonomous region employs new tactics to establish independent oil sales in defiance of Baghdad. Sources and energy officials had told Reuters on Thursday that the sales from Ceyhan via the autonomous regions new pipeline were more than 8 million barrels in 11 tankers. A U.S. court on Monday threw out an order to seize some 1 million barrels of disputed Iraqi Kurdish crude oil from a tanker near Texas, a move that could allow the cargo to be delivered and end a nearly month-long impasse. "The U.S.

A third tanker carrying piped crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan is being loaded at Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, a source at the Turkish energy ministry told Reuters On Friday. The source said the loading was expected to be completed by Saturday and that the tanker would be carrying 1 million barrels of Kurdish oil. (Reporting by Orhan Coskun; Writing by Ece Toksabay; Editing by Nick Tattersall)