The disputed theft of a ship has cast a spotlight on the complexities of doing business across legal jurisdictions as shipping steps into the digital age.

Singapore’s Britoil Offshore Services and Egypt’s Ships & Boats Oil Services are locked in what appears to be an intractable dispute over the sale of the 4,200-bhp anchor-handling tug Sea King Elgedida (ex-Britoil 57, built 2003) in 2020, which the seller claims is going nowhere in the Egyptian courts.