49 Tanker Trends 9 July

7/29/2019 49 Tanker Trends 9 July

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TANKERtrendsIssue 49, Friday July 9, 2004 A Tanker Operator publication www.tankertrends.com

Barely three years old, Greece’s Primal Tankers is making a

bold bid to become the next Greek tanker company to list

in New York under the banner of TOP Tankers (TOPT).

According to a prospectus filed with the SEC, TOPT seeks

to net around $144m from an ipo to contribute to the $251.2m

purchase price of ten tankers to take its fleet to 17 totalling

1.1m dwt.The offer is of 13.3m shares expected to be priced between

$13 and $15 a share with a 2m share underwriters’ overallot-

ment. The company intends to list on Nasdaq.

Primal started in 2000 with two handysize product carriers

and has built the fleet up to seven consisting of two smallish

Brazilian-built Chevron suezmaxes and two handymax product

carriers plus one more handysize acquired last year. Its primary

customers are Petrobras and Vitol.

The prospectus reveals that Primal Tankers made $1.6m net

profit last year on turnover of $23m from a fleet averaging 4.4

vessels. In the first quarter of 2004, it made $1.24m on rev-

enues of $7.7m based on 5.2 vessels.

The new vessels consist of two suezmaxes and eight 1990’s

Halla-built product carriers that Sovcomflot is clearing out to

make way for its extensive newbuilding programme. The the

product carriers are on charter back for two years at

$14,500/$14,250 a day plus a profit share.

TOPT has negotiated a new secured $193m credit facility,

$107.3m of which will finance the balance of the purchase price,

and the rest refinance existing debt. On completion of the offer-

ing, TOTP will have an indebtedness ratio to total capital of

around 50% which TOTP says is its target leverage for the post-

offer operation and any further acquisitions to be made.

At the moment, 20% of the 6m outstanding shares of TOPT

are owned by 31-year-old Primal principal Evangelos Pistiolis

and 80% by Kingdom Holdings owned “primarily by another

member of the Pistiolos family (Evangelos’s father John?) and

to a limited extent by a third party.” After the offer, Pistiolis

would own 6.7% of TOPT, and the mysterious Kingdom

Holdings still a hefty 20%.

Pistiolis worked as a container broker at Howe Robinson in

the mid 1990’s but the prospectus does not say what he wasdoing from 1995 to the 2000 foundation of Primal Tankers.

The company is to be chaired by Primal’s financial advisor,

Thomas Jackson, long-time shipping banker with Natwest

IN THIS ISSUE:

Egyptian offer on gas 2 Egypt is keen to cooperate with Greek shipown-

ers in the transportation of its natural gas.

Deals go through for Eitzen 3Big week for Oslo Bourse newbie Camillo Eitzen

as it closed on the two main transactions prefig-

ured in its prospectus for last month’s listing.

Oil 4The oil market has come off the boil after tem-

porary supply disruptions in Iraq and Nigeria cat-

apulted US light crude within sight of $40, but

the respite likely will be short lived amid uncer-

tainty over OPEC’s ability to keep pace with

surging global demand.

Suezmax 4The suezmax market in the Western hemi-

sphere climbed again last week, though east of

Suez it was a different story

VL/UL fundamentals 6 The market is ticking along nicely with rates ris-

ing once more this week. July has come in equal

best with May this year with 108 fixtures out of

the Gulf, and the odd one or two may conceiv-

ably trickle in.

Key tanker fixtures 5,

Tanker fleet changes 6,Sales 7,

Worldwatch 8

Tankertrends 9 July 2004 1

First for Primal



Insight


Egyptian offer on gas

Egypt is keen to cooperate with Greek

shipowners in the transportation of its

natural gas.

As Egypt moves to develop its natural gasreserves in a bid to become a major produc-

er, the country's government has made an

approach to Greek ship owners suggesting

long term co-operation.

Following recent meetings between

Greece's diplomatic representatives in Cairo

and executives of the Egyptian State

Company of Natural Gas, the Union of Greek

Shipowners has been approached directly to

help in the search for Greek tonnage.

In a letter to the UGS, officials in Egypt

note "Egypt will very soon have the infra-

structure and the capacity to become one of

the main supply centres of natural gas".

Egypt is presently developing its natural

gas sector and is exporting product in liquid

and concentrated form. Indeed, it is seeking

to export product to Greece and believes

Greek ships can be utilised in this business

as well as the wider transportation of its

product.Egypt's natural gas reserves are estimat-

ed to run to 1,736bn cu mtrs.

In 2004/2005 it’s estimated the country's

production of natural gas will reach 35bn cu

mtrs.

Greece presently has a fleet of around 55gas carriers, most of them aged. In all, only

eight Greek operators run gas carriers and

by far the largest of them is the Greek/Syrian

company Naftomar Shipping & Trading

which has 26 LPG carriers, the bulk of them

built in the early to mid 1980s.

Benelux Overseas has 10 LPG carriers,

built from the mid 1970s through to the early

1980s. Dorian (Hellas) has four LPG units,

two built in 1989 and two commissioned in

1997.

Presently five Greek operations are build-

ing 10 gas carriers, four of them, Tsakos

Energy Navigation, Kristen Navigation,

Dynacom Tankers Management and Stamco

Shipmanagement, moving into the sector for

the first time. The fifth is Dorian.

TEN, Kristen and Dynacom and all build-

ing LNG carriers at South Korea's Hyundai

HI, with Kristen and Dynacom, each building

three ships of around 150,000c mtr at aninvestment of around $1.2bn. Tsakos has

one firm, one option, and is actively working

TOPT says itsfinancial strategy isfocused on “main-taining our currentlevel of leverageand distributing aportion of our annual net incomein dividends.”

’

‘

until 1999.

The offer is being lead by Cantor

Fitzgerald, Hibernia Southcoast Capital,

HARRISdirect and Alpha Finance - none

exactly household names in the shipping

public markets.TOPT says its financial strategy is

focused on “maintaining our current level of

leverage and distributing a portion of our

annual net income in dividends.” The current

intention is to pay a first quarterly dividend in

January next year of $0.21 per share which

would cost the company just under $4m.

It intends to focus on the acquisition of

handymax product carriers and suezmaxes,

preferably sisterships.

The company says it will sell its remaining

single hull tankers aggregating 8.1m dwt

before end 2005. Management will be

through a wholly owned subsidiary, TOP

Tanker Management Inc, but technical man-

agement of the new vessels will be left with

their current manager, Unicom, while the

existing fleet will be technically managed byV Ships. However ships are crewed by direct

employees.

Funnily enough the last but one Greek

shipping entrepreneur to float in New York,

Peter Georgiopoulos took a similar route,

with Genmar using the ipo to fund the pur-

chase of a fleet of Sovcomflot obos.

Despite Wall Street’s current love affair

with tanker shipping, it will be interesting to

see whether it fancies financing a fleet past

middle age.

Ian Middleton



Big week for Oslo Bourse newbie Camillo

Eitzen as it closed on the two main

transactions prefigured in its prospectus for

last month’s listing.

First to close was the agreement to buy

John Fredriksen-controlled Naviera Quimica

and its chemical carrier together with six

other chemical carriers controlled by

Fredriksen. Purchase price was $47mfinanced with $7m in cash, $33m in debt

and $7m in new shares giving Fredriksen a

4% stake in the company.

The share price of Fredriksen’s tranche is

guaranteed for six months unless it equals

or betters the NKr 35 offer subscription price

for two weeks on the stock exchange

together with a minimum share liquidity

threshold, in which case the guarantee will

be released.

Naviera Quimica is a niche operator in

the Mediterranean/Southern Europe trades.

About half its cargo is carried under coa’s,

the rest spot.

That transaction was swiftly followed this

week by closure of a deal to buy nine late-

1980’s-built Stelmar product carriers in the

handymax size range. The vessels are

bareboated back to Stelmar for five years at

an average of $6,528 a day per ship. The

$106.6m deal is 86% debt-financed through

Parmar KS of which CE is general manager

and a 25% stakeholder.

CE’s existing involvement in the chemical

sector is through 11 vessels in the

Copenhagen Tankers jv with Wonsild and

the Clipper Group with a further newbuild-

ing to come this month.

Its oil tanker involvement is through three

early 1990s-built panamax obos.

It participates in the gas shipping market,

both lpg and ethylene, with a 16-vesselowned or part-owned fleet. Prior to the float

it bought Bergesen’s 15% stake in ethylene

carrier operation Sigloo Gas KS taking its

own stake to 40%. The company has also

bought the 20% of Eitzen Bulk that it did not

already own.

Interestingly enough the effect of all these

acquisitions on a pro forma basis, if they had

been in place January 1st, would have been

to reduce CE’s first quarter net profit by

$1.4m from $13m.

As a result of them CE’s fixed assets

have increased from $141m in May to

$245m now. Equity has gone from $38.1m

to $55.6m and long term debt from $117.4m

to $205.4m.

Pro forma, the enlarged group’s 1st quar-

ter would have produced first quarter rev-

enues of $146.3m and net profits of

$11.63m.

Last month’s offering raised NKr301m

through the sale of 8.6m shares at NKr35.

Ian Middleton

... the gas sector “is a competitiveone" with "only four of five companieshaving their ownfleets”.

’‘

Insight


Deals go through for Eitzen

a project for two similar size gas ships with

Spain's Izar.

The Latsis Group entered the sector in

2003 when it commissioned two 60,000 dwt

LPGs, while Chandris Hellas has been

linked to several newbuilding projects in a

management capacity, most notably UK's

BG Group which has eight 68,250 dwt ships

under construction at Samsung HI in South

Korea, the first of which is delivering, with

the rest to come 2006-2008.

TEN chairman and ceo, Nikolas Tsakos

says the gas sector "is a competitive one"

with "only four of five companies having their

own fleets". He believes that in the future the

use of gas will become more common, and

as is the case with Egypt, points out there "is

a lot of natural gas but no installations for

handling its transportations".

"This will soon change," says Tsakos.

David Glass


http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/49-tanker-trends-9-july 4/9Tankertrends 9 July 2004 4

The suezmax market in the Western hemi-

sphere climbed again last week, though

east of Suez it was a different story. The dif-

ferential between average earnings in the

VLCC and suezmax markets is now less than

$10,000 a day.

Med rates in particular jumped 25 pointslast week but early fixtures this week suggest

a falling back to the mid-WS170’s.

Rates transatlantic in the West Africa load

area also beat WS170 with WS192.5 fixed

for Chile although that fixture has failed.

There have been too few fixtures this week to

discern a trend, but brokers suggest that July

is almost done. Galbraith’s says that com-

pared with a couple of years ago, suezmax

tonnage lists are much shorter, although the

Alliance pool of course is not releasing its

forward positions, and charterers are book-

ing earlier in the cycle.

Rates east out of the Gulf have continued

to drop this week on sparse activity taking

earnings to little more than half those in the

Med.

With three suezmaxes due to phase out

this year and 10 still to deliver, net fleet

growth should be around 6% in deadweight

terms - not too dramatic considering theextra flow of oil and its tonne-mile effect.

2005 should see about the same net growth.

It is interesting to note just how much the

fragmented suezmax ownership has consoli-

dated at the top end in the last eighteen

months or so as a result of various deals. The

top four at the beginning of 2003 were the

Fredriksen Group with 31 vesels, Metrostar

with 14, Sovkomflot with 11 and a clutch of

others, including Teekay, with 9. Today

Fredriksen is still at the top with 29 and none

on order, joined by Teekay with 29 but three

on order though the majority are shuttle

tankers, Genmar on 21 with four on order,

and Sovkomflot with 12 but 10 on order.

Ian Middleton

Tankertrends

The oil market has come off the boil after

temporary supply disruptions in Iraq and

Nigeria catapulted US light crude within sight

of $40, but the respite likely will be short lived

amid uncertainty over OPEC’s ability to keep

pace with surging global demand.

Traders are bracing for extreme volatility

over the coming weeks as minor supply

hitches trigger disproportionate price move-

ments in a drum tight market.The near halv-

ing of Iraqi exports to 900,000 b/d after sab-

otage to a pipeline and the loss of 250,000

b/d of Nigerian crude following a workers’

protest cut global supply by just 1.7% for a

few days yet prices jumped to their highest

level in over a month.

With Iraq and Nigeria pumping at near nor-

mal levels again prices are heading lower with

key regional markets, including the US, rela-

tively well supplied with crude and products for

the next few weeks as increased OPEC out-

put is about to arrive at import terminals.

The price retreat was accelerated by

Saudi Arabia’s assurance that OPEC will go

ahead with a planned 500,000 b/d increase

in official production quotas from August thatwere agreed in early June. Earlier comments

by Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi that prices

were at a satisfactory level had cast doubt on

whether the cartel would sanction a second

production increase in as many months

when it meets in Vienna on July 21. OPEC

raised its official output by 2m b/d to 25.5m

b/d in July and is under intense pressure

from consuming nations to pump even more

to prevent a price spike that threatens to

slow global economic growth.

The market is also waiting to see whether

Yukos, Russia’s largest oil producer, will be

forced to reduce some of the 400,000 b/d

exports of crude and products shipped by rail

and river as it attempts to finance its pipeline

shipments after the Kremlin froze its bank

accounts in a bitter dispute over $7 billion of

unpaid taxes. The company insists it will not

cut its exports, which total around 1.2m b/d,

and will respect all its commitments as it has

prepaid its pipeline fees for July traders

remain wary.

For now, traders, hedge funds and specu-

lators, expect the market to soften, probably

sliding to a floor of $35 for US light crude, but

no one rules out another strong rally with

Iraq at the mercy of saboteurs and Nigeriafacing further labour unrest at a time when

global demand is growing at its fastest pace

for 24 years.

Bruce Barnar d

Oil

Suezmax

Point to make?View on the

market?Let us know!

emailsubs@tankertrends.

com

Graph based on datafrom Clarksons



Voyage

VLCCThe Gulf market is heating up again this

week in a satisfactory way for owners as

early August laycans are fixed at higher

rates than nearer end July positions.

Thus CSSA fixed Asian Progress II for 265k

AG/SAF at WS135 off August 6th. Two days

earlier Engen had fixed a brace of VLCCs for

the same trip at WS120 for end July.

Rates east were making similar progress

with rates topping WS125 for early August

dates against WS120 paid earlier in the

week for late July laycan.

Embiricos’s single hull Falkonera seems

to have done particularly well for the top fix-

ture this week so far scoring a reported

WS130 for 260k AG/Taiwan for Formosa off

August 1st. That takes earnings above

$80,000 a day.

West Africa is maintaining at above

$80,000 a day with Elizabeth Angelicoussis

fixed at WS122.5 by Emerald for 260k

WAF/USG off August 4th. West Africa has

consistently been the best earning VLCC

main route this year underpinned by the

strong suezmax market.

SuezmaxWest African rates for 1m barrel ships

may be losing a little ground this week but

rates are still topping WS160 at presstime.

Thus Andriaki’s Venetia is reported to

have secured WS165 from CNR for a late

July fixture WAF/USG for earnings around

$55,000 a day.

Black Sea suezmaxes, by contrast seem

to be regaining lost ground as the week goes

on. Chevtex has reportedly conceded

WS180 for 135k CPC/UKCMed on Minerva

Symphony off August 1st pulling the market

back up to 15 points on earlier week fixtures

and keeping earnings at a healthy $70,000 a

day or so.

AframaxMed aframax rates are slipping below

Ws200 this week. Fixture of the Livia at

WS207.5 for a cross Med voyage off July

21st failed and replacement Tsakos’s

Parthenon accepted WS195 taking earn-

ings down to around $36,000 a day - stillhealthy of course. A Minerva tbn kept the

flag flying with WS210 from Tamoil for

cross-Med, but other fixtures this week

seem to confirm a WS190s benchmark.

The Caribs market has come roaring

back this week with pride of place going to

Arcadia’s Aegean Legend fixed to Stusco

at WS200 for 70k ECMex/USG off July

14th a thirty point advance on last week

taking earnings to around $36,000 a day.

Other fixtures this week have been in theWS190s.

Time charter Very little activity in the period market.

However, Hyundai has taken NYK’s 1991-

buillt single hull, Tohdoh, on for three years

at $30,000 a day bringing the total number

of VLCCs taken on period charter to 12

this year against 23 for the whole of lastyear. Academically, it is an interesting deci-

sion: around $25m net of operating costs

over three years with only three years of

trading life on redelivery against a sale

value now of about $45m.

Key saleBroker reports suggest that six pana-

max tankers on order at New Centuryshipyard in China for delivery 2004 to 2006

have been sold on to German buyers.

Although few details have been given it

looks as if the ships are those on order for

Consolidated Navigation in Monaco and

the buyer is Chemikalien Seetransport . If

the reported $38.5m per ship price is cor-

rect the seller will have done very well out

of the deal - they were ordered at around

$30m each back in 2002.

The seller may well feel also that he isbetter off out of the panamax market

where the orderbook, at 53.6% of the fleet,

is chronically overblown.

Tankertrends

Key fixtures



The market is ticking along nicely

with rates rising once more this week.

July has come in equal best with May

this year with 108 fixtures out of the

Gulf, and the odd one or two may con-

ceivably trickle in.

August has now begun in earnest -

traditionally the worst month in the

VLCC market so it will be very interest-

ing to see what happens.

As of last weekend there were only

15 modern vessels available to load in

the following 30 days according to EA

Gibson which could therefore create a

spike in the market for early double hull

tonnage.

Tankertrends

Tanker fleet changes

Newbuilding contracts Scrapping To deliver Week YTD Week YTD 2003

V/ULCC 0 (0) 29 (8,822) 0 (0) 4 (1,342) 20 (6,167)

Suezmax 0 (0) 22 (3,535) 0 (0) 8 (1,128) 13 (2,139)

Aframax/LR2 0 (0) 47 (5,554) 0 (0) 19 (1,819) 23 (2,584)

Panamax/LR1 0 (0) 28 (2,219) 0 (0) 10 (607) 24 (2,748)

MR Prods 40k+ 3 (159) 89 (3,977) 0 (0) 2 (80) 58 (2,675)

Number of vessels (,000 dwt). Not including options.

Table revised. Source Clarkson Research/TT

JAPAN

SHIN KURUSHIMA

1 x 53,000 dwt product carrier (60k cu mtr)

for Clio Maritime. Del from 2006.

2 x 53,000 dwt product carriers for Mitsui.

Del 2006.

WATANABE

1 x 25,000 dwt chemical carrier for Stolt-Nielsen. Del 2005.

KOREA

DAEWOO

3 x 145,000 cu mtr LNG carriers for

Sovcomflot. Del 2007.

3 x 151,700 cu mtr LNG carriers for Teekay.

Del 2006/7. Price $170m.

Newbuilding contracts

VLCC/ULCC Fundamentals

Data from DVB Bank

VL/UL Fundamentals (AG/RS)Spot market: RISINGSpot rates: EXCELLENTAvailability: (exc TI and Frontline)

Total VL V88- V88+ UL (oilco r/l)

Prompt Info n/a15 days30 days

Fixed 8/7 28/6May stems 108 110June stems 102 102July stems 108 73 Aug stems 10 0

Watch out for these charterers:

August just getting underway



Tankertrends

Cabo Tamar 62 90 Hudong B&W 2SA Chileans undisc 12.5

(Reliable Energy) 39 Prods SONAP

Maersk Princess 100 03 Dalian New Sulzer 2SA Danes Koreans 57

62 Prods AP Moller Daelim Corp

N/B resale 47 05 Onomichi Hong Kong Italians 37

Prods Wah Kwong Socomar

Nile 66 81 Sumitomo Sulzer 2SA Americans undisc 5.2

(Ogden Nile) 41 Prods OMI

*Flores 37 01 Hy. Mipo B&W 2SA Monegasque Germans

23 Chemoil Arminter GEBAB

*Kerel 37 02 Hy. Mipo B&W 2SA Monegasque Germans


*Sicilia 37 01 Hy. Mipo B&W 2SA Monegasque Germans


*Gianutri 37 04 Hy. Mipo Monegasque Germans


*N/B resale 37 05 Hy. Mipo Monegasque Germans


6 x N/B resales 73 04/6 New Century Monegasque Germans $38.5m

Prods Consolidated Nav CST each

*New info see issue 47

Sales

Ship name Dwt/Gt Blt Yard Engine Sold by Sold to Price(ex name) (,000) Type (reported) ($m)

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n Genmar has closed on new $825m

senior secured financing facility lead by

Nordea. The facility consists of a $225mterm loan and a $600m revolving credit

facility.

The term loan has a five year maturity at

a rate of LIBOR plus 1%. It amortises

quarterly with a $35m balloon. The non-

amortising revolver is of the same tenor

and rate with a 0.5% commitment fee on

the unused portion. Co-arrangers were

Citibank, HSH Nordbank, Dresdner Bank,

Bank of Scotland and RBS.

Concurrently the company has retired

existing facilities totalling $730m and

is left with liquidity of $370m after the

transaction.

n A Korean lpg carrier is reported by

Chinese news agency Xinhua to have

been in collision with a Chinese vessel,

Jingan No 6 off Lushun with one seamendead off the Chinese vessel and another

missing.

The dead man was one of 18 crewmen

rescued from the sea after the Jingan no

6 sank. A search was still on for the

remaining crew member.

The Korean vessel, operated by

Saehan Marine of Seoul, has been

ordered in to Dalian pending investiga-

tion. Saehan Marine has a 9-vessel fleet

of small lpg vessels, chemical carriers

and sulphur carriers.

n Gas tanker and lightering specialist, IM

Skaugen, reports a $1.5m net loss for the

second quarter of this year (2003 2Q: $2m

profit) on net revenues of $21.4m (2003

2Q: $47m) taking first half losses to

$2.3m. The reduction in revenues is main-ly due to the sale of 50% of the Skaugen

Petrotrans lightering business to Teekay.

Gas activities, mainly through Norgas,

experienced much weaker conditions than

anticipated during the quarter due to ashortage of product worldwide resulting in

more idle time for the fleet. Shuttle tanker

activities achieved “acceptable” results

after a challenging start to the year.

n Only Indian-flagged LNG carriers will

be allowed to carry LNG imports into the

country the Indian Shipping Ministry has

decided. Furthermore, importing vessels

must have a minimum 26% Indian stake

in the ownership of the vessel. The restric-

tions are tied to the introduction of a ton-

nage tax regime for the Indian flag and

will apply when it comes in. Such vessels

will also have to carry a minimum of two

Indian officers and two Indian cadets.

Partners in such vessels must also agree

to a transfer of technology to the Indian

partner so that within five years theship will be managed, maintained and

operated by the Indian partner. Spot car-

goes can be carried on any vessel provid-

ed they do not exceed 10% of annual

import volumes.

n Algerian reports say that crew of

Hyproc Shipping gas tanker Chihani

Bachir were subjected to “humiliating”

treatment by US marines and

Coastguard personnel who boarded the

ship at gunpoint off the Lake Charles,

Louisiana, LNG terminal in April. The

captain and 43 Algerian crewmen were

questioned for hours. Details emerged

after the vessel returned recently to

Arzew. A leaked report to Hyproc's parent

Sonatrach and and Alegerian Energy

Minister Chakib Khalil described the inci-dent as “shameful” and tarnishing

Algeria's reputation and sovereignty.

Worldwatch

Worldwatch



Stuart Fryer Publisher

Ian Middleton Contributing Editor

Vivian Chee Production

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© Copyright Maritime Content Ltd 2004


Football fever

ABN Amro Greece's

shipping chief Dimitri Anagnostopoulos was in

ebullient mood at the

bank's 30th anniversary

celebration at the Astir

Place this week.

Football fan

Agnastopoulos joked to

guests that he had person-

ally arranged the party

(months before) to double

as a celebration of

Greece's winning Euro

2004.

Mind you, to be fair, he

had been offering to take

bets on Greece at a private

dinner before Greece's dra-

matic victory against the

Portuguese.

Guests including many

prominent shipowners,were treated to displays of

synchronised swimming for

some reason - are the

Greeks about to conquer

Europe in this endeavour

also?

Wonder if Agnastopoulos

managed to emulate the

punter in the south of England who won £330,000

with a series of bets on the

winners starting with a mod-

est £4,000 before a ball had

been kicked in anger.

A Burmese businessman

apparently.

They know their football

in Burma...and in Greece

as we must now all

concede.

40:40:20 anyone?

I must say the heart sank

as I read the latest

bureaucratic endeavour

from the Indian ministry of

shipping. Only Indian flag

ships will be allowed to

carry LNG imports into the

country on long term char-

ters. The regulations are

stayed until India's pro-

posed tonnage tax system

comes in (which given the

interminable wrangling that

accompanies such reformscould well be years). Up

until then, therefore, import

vessels can be foreign reg-

istered but must be mini-

mum 26% owned by an

Indian partner (shouldn't

that be 25 times the square

root of minus one?).

Furthermore, once the

regulations are operative,

chartered vessels must

have a minimum of two

Indian officers and two

trainee officers/cadets, one

each on the engineering

and deck side respectively.

Ownership consortium

members have to transfer

technology to the Indian

partner within five years so

that the Indian partner becomes the manager and

operator of the vessel.

Really makes you want to

get involved doesn't it.

Icing on the cake is that

importers can use foreign

vessels to import spot car-

goes - but only if such

imports do not exceed 10%

of annual imports (on a ter-

minal by terminal basis!).

Think about it.

Let's hope the good citi-

zens of Bangalore or wher-

ever appreciate this

Kafkaesque scheme to pro-

mote Indian shipping while

sitting in the dark due the

inability of their local LNG

importer to bring in a spot

cargo because he will be

over the limit.

The Cubancastle

Talking of which, it's been

noted in several places

that a US Navy spokesman

put up to answer journalists

questions about the prison

at Guantanamo Bay is one

Lieutenant Mike Kafka.That's right - a prison where

inmates are only vaguely

charged with crimes, can't

speak to lawyers and may

never get out.

Ian Middleton

The Back Page

Diary

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49 Tanker Trends 9 July

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