A $3.8m court case involving Glencore is partly dependent on whether a chief engineer who set fire to a Greek aframax was mentally disturbed at the time, a UK high court judge has ruled.

The bid to recover costs by the trader relates to a voyage on Freeport Holdings' 115,000-dwt aframax Lady M (built 2003), which was carrying its 62,250-tonne fuel oil cargo from Russia to Houston in May, 2015.