STENA SURPRISE
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Auction of cargo postponed
The Court of Justice in Curaçao has ordered the confiscation of the "Stena Surprise" and its cargo of 380,225 barrels of Boscan crude to pay a PDVSA debt on behalf of creditor Energy Coal, which has been berthed in port since Sep 30, 2018. The court-ordered auction of a Venezuelan crude cargo in Curacao has been postponed on a petition filed by the original purchaser, Thai bitumen trader Tipco. The 380,225 bl cargo of Venezuela's 10.5°API Boscan crude was supposed to have been sold on Nov 27 to satisfy a court judgment from July 25 in favour of Italy's Energy Coal, a creditor of Venezuela's state-owned PdV. The sale was meant to recover more than $2.4mn and to secure other claims for further principal sums, interests and costs, according to the conditions of sale for the cargo dating Nov 15. The heavy sour crude has been stuck aboard the "Stena Surprise" at Curacao's Bullen Bay terminal since September, the latest in a string of pre-judgment attachments levied on PdV assets in the Dutch Caribbean. A hearing on the case was scheduled to resume on Dec 7 in Curacao's Court of First Instance in Willemstad, leaving the cargo in limbo until then. Energy Coal has a longstanding dispute with PdV over payment for construction of a petroleum coke midstream unit at PdV's Jose terminal. The coke byproduct of upgrading Venezuela's extra-heavy crude has piled up at Jose for years. The Dutch Caribbean has emerged as the jurisdiction of choice for Venezuela's many jilted creditors because of the ease with which assets can be seized to try to satisfy claims, compared with other jurisdictions such as the US. PdV has extensive assets on the Dutch Caribbean islands of Curacao, Aruba, Bonaire and St Eustatius, including refineries and storage. The highest-profile case was spearheaded by US independent ConocoPhillips in May 2018 to satisfy a $2bn international arbitration award. The enforcement action thwarted PdV's oil export logistics and led to a legal settlement in August.
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