The Stena Primorsk is constructed with a double hull, in a class which has been described as ‘arguably the safest product tanker ever’, and the six square foot hole torn into her outer skin when she grounded did not lead to a drop of oil polluting the waters she sailed in. She was navigating the river with a trained pilot on board when she suffered some sort of steering gear failure leading to her running aground.
The ship was en route from Albany with 40,000 tonnes of Bakken light, low sulphur crude oil, less than two thirds of her potential capacity, with her cargo bound for the Irving Oil Corp’s refinery in New Brunswick, Canada for processing and following the incident she was subsequently towed back to Albany where she was offloaded. The incident led however to her not continuing with her charter and the vessel was withdrawn from a contract to see her transit the same route every 8 days.
In July 2013 Concordia received an initial claim for $21 million from its customer, a claim which was then adjusted upward to $23 million with a request that the matter be settled by arbitration in the United States in accordance with the terms of their agreement. In connection with the arbitration proceedings, Concordia Maritime then asserted counterclaims in the amount of $6 million.
A discovery phase followed during which both parties standpoints and demands were examined carefully, and which was completed in the third quarter of 2015. After further discussions, the parties have now entered into a settlement agreement according to which Concordia Maritime will pay $9.25 million to the counterparty immediately and will constitute a final settlement between the parties with respect to the dispute. This outcome is doubtless a relief to both as the case was predicted to stretch well into 2017 should arbitration have failed and subsequent legal costs would of course continue to spiral upward.
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