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Maersk seeks compensation for contaminated fuel

The Maersk company has filed a suit on Feb 9, 2021, alleging that fuel supplied to it as part of an oil swap deal in the year 2018, was contaminated and caused damages to the 'Sofie Maersk'. The suit filed in the Southern District of New York seeks to hold commodities trader Glencore liable for supplying the off-spec fuel to the company's vessels. According to papers filed with the court, Maersk completed a fuel swap with Glencore for 24,000 barrels of marine fuel to be supplied to the company in Panama in February 2018. The fuel was pumped aboard the 'Sofie Maersk' which experienced first a fuel pump failure and days later a main engine failure while also using fuel from the same shipment. The 'Sofie Maersk', which was transiting the Pacific, had to be towed to Hawaii for repairs and to load new fuel. A subsequent analysis of the fuel showed that it was off-spec and seriously contaminated. The court documents report that the tests showed the fuel contained traces of plastic, fibres, black gum, paraffin, and fatty acids. Maersk was seeking more than $6 million in damages from Glencore for the contaminated fuel.

Disabled container ship towed to Honolulu

The "Sofie Maersk" has been taken in tow by the offshore tug "Maersk Launcher" (IMO: 9425746) which was deployed from Honolulu. The convoy was proceeding towards Honolulu where the container ship arrived on March 26 for repairs.

Engine breakdown in North Pacific

On March 4 the "Sofie Maersk" suffered an engine breakdown in the North Pacific and was adrift in pos. N 37° 4.88' W 167° 33.88' on March 12. The ship to be taken to the port of Honolulu, where a repair will be started. The container ship was fully loaded and the containers are expected to remain on board during the repair. The ship was deployed on the eastern AC2 service that connects Asia with the west coast of South America. The ship is expected to reach Qingdao at the earliest on April 8, 2018. It had sailed from Lazaro Cardenas on Feb 19.