Ocean HeavyLift in battle to free detained vessel

Martyn Wingrove - Thursday 20 November 2008

OCEAN Heavylift is fighting to release one of its four heavylift transport ships from US authorities, after being sued for $60m for costs and losses. 

The HeavyLift Ancora has been arrested in the US for its failure to transport an offshore construction vessel across the Atlantic to the UK after it returned for repairs . 

In late October the HeavyLift Ancora lost its cargo, the KS Titan 1 liftboat, on its way to the UK when it had engine problems in heavy weather. 

The KS Titan 1’s owners, a joint venture between Ezra and KS Energy, claimed $60m in costs and damages from Ocean HeavyLift for the total loss of the liftboat, but Norway-based Ocean HeavyLift has rejected this. 

“We fully reject the claim and will rely upon the provisions in the transport contract, which includes industry standard knock-for-knock provisions clearly defining that we carry no risk whatsoever related to its cargo,” Ocean HeavyLift said in a statement. 

“We are evaluating actions to recover any loss of income, costs or other damages related to the claim.” 

The loss of KS Titan 1 left the owners having to source an alternative vessel for offshore windfarm construction work in the UK. 

Following the incident off the US north east coast, HeavyLift Ancora sailed to Bermuda for seven days of repairs and left on 10 November for Corpus Christi to prepare for its next lift operation, said analysts at Lloyd’s MIU. 

The vessel is one of a pair that were converted from Croatian-built general cargo ships in China. The $88m sister ship HeavyLift Hawk is due to be delivered this month after months of yard delays. 

Since its delivery in June, HeavyLift Ancora has encountered technical issues and had to go into a dock in Trinidad for $2.5m in repairs before it took on the KS Titan 1 lift. 

The ship arrest comes at a bad time for Ocean HeavyLift as it is a target for a NKr36 per share takeover bid from Norway’s Spenser Energy.

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