Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM)’s arrest of a tanker in Singapore last week could be the first of many for Petroleos de Venezuela SA (PDVSA).
The shipmanager filed a SGD 2.6m ($1.92m) claim against the 113,200-dwt Arita (built 2015) for unpaid bunker bills, crew wages, ship chandler services, shiprepair costs and provision of services.
It is unlikely that BSM wanted to arrest a vessel belonging to a long-time client, but with PDVSA firmly on the US sanctions blacklist, the company had little choice if it wanted to get paid.
