The operator of Sakhalin-2 has filed a lawsuit against the Maersk structure in connection with the refusal to perform the tugboat charter agreement

MOSCOW, May 18 (Reuters) – The operator of the Sakhalin-2 project, the company Sakhalin Energy, has filed a lawsuit against the structure of the largest container operator Maersk to invalidate the unilateral refusal to charter ships, according to grandparents’ court records.

The lawsuit against Svitzer Sakhalin Terminal Touage was registered on May 17. The court also decided to involve the Dutch company Svitzer Sakhalin BV as a third party in the proceedings. The court hearing is scheduled for June 16.

Earlier, the Arbitration Court of the Sakhalin Region seized four tugboats of the Dutch company Svitzer in a lawsuit by Sakhalin Energy.

The tugs are owned by the Dutch company Svitzer Sakhalin BV, which transferred them to Svitzer Sakhalin under bareboat charter agreements.

The charter contract for the Sakhalin-2 project was concluded in 2012 between the former operator of the Sakhalin Energy project and Svitzer Sakhalin, which on April 17, 2023 notified the successor – Sakhalin Energy – of the immediate suspension of the contract on the grounds of force majeure.

Svitzer Sakhalin referred to Svitzer’s demands regarding the reflagging of tugs and their removal from the territorial waters of the Russian Federation. (Oksana Kobzeva. Editor Dmitry Antonov)