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Thursday, October 17, 2013
São Tomé e Príncipe (STP) is trying to sell an oil cargo which according to Stena Oil, was wrongfully confiscated by the country. The cargo, valued at $7.5 million, was confiscated from vessels chartered by Stena Oil.
Stena says this is not the first attempt STP has made in profiting from the seized cargo. According to the company, a tanker ship from a buyer of the cargo was approaching STP but turned around when the owner of the tanker ship was informed of how the cargo came to be for sale.
The government of STP has wrongfully detained two tankers for nearly eight months. According to a Stena Oil statement, the two captains of the vessel were detained in prison until recently. One of the tankers, without cargo, was released but the one with cargo, the Maltese tanker M/T Duzgit Integrity, is still kept by STP.
Stena claims that high ranking government officials have apparently, despite an ongoing legal appeal, sought to sell the cargo to international interests. Stena says the appeal is still being handled by the judicial system in STP. The company also said it has never been served or notified of the process where the cargo was confiscated.
On October 11 Stena said that the Panama flag tanker M/T Anuket Emerald, chartered by the company Monjasa A/S, was approaching the island and was in preparation to load the cargo from its tanker. Fortunately the owner of M/T Anuket Emerald refused to commence the loading operation when they learned that M/T Duzgit Integrity was lacking proper certificates to conduct oil transfers. Furthermore there was no captain onboard responsible for the cargo operation making the operation unsafe and in violation of international regulations. They were also informed that the tanker was not under command of the crew but by São Tomé soldiers not trained in proper tanker management. The STP coast guard commanding officer in charge actually purported to send messages in the name of the captain to lure the M/T Anuket Emerald to come alongside, but failed in these attempts.
The company believes that the STP government is in the process of creating an international incident by this illegal behavior which is in violation of international law and custom. Stena Oil has informed the government of Malta, as well as the Swedish government and the European Union of the actions taken by STP.
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