Americas News
Singapore Owners of Arrested Ferry Start Paying Off its Bunker Bills, Other Debts
Singapore Technologies Marine (STM), the Singapore-based owner of the arrested MS Nova Star ferry, has started to pay some of the outstanding bunker bills and other debts incurred by the vessel's Canada-based operator Nova Star Cruises, local U.S. media reports.
$147,000 was reported to have been paid to Sprague Operating Resources for outstanding bunkers, resulting in the removal of the maritime it had against the MS Nova Star, although earlier reports indicated the supplier was claiming more than twice that amount.
In addition a number of other bills were paid, including $12,000 for tugboat services provided by McAllister Towing and Transportation Co..
It means however there is still more than $1 million in unpaid bunker debt that the Singapore company may also now pay, which is being claimed by Cockett Marine Oil (Cockett).
Around $500,000 was also being claimed by World Fuel Services, although it is not clear if this debt has been settled.
Canadian media reports that Nova Star Cruises, which operated a ferry service that ran between Portland, Maine and Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, claims that it is having difficulty paying its bills because the Province of Nova Scotia has failed to provide the company $2 million that was part of an agreed to total of $41.5 million funding over two years.
"If we had received the full $21 million that the Province has repeatedly said in public statements that it provided to Nova Star Cruises, we would have avoided the liens that have been placed on the ship, and most of the creditors would already have been paid," said Mark Amundsen, Nova Star Cruises' president and CEO.
The province, which is reported to have paid Nova Star Cruises $28.5 million in 2013 and $13 million in 2014, says that it had no obligation to pay the $2 million, as it was part of a surety bond required by U.S. authorities intended to ensure the ability to issue ticket refunds.
"There was always the understanding that this bond would be returned to the province," said Geoff MacLellan, Transportation Minister for Nova Scotia.
Last week, Ship & Bunker reported that one of the companies claiming money from Nova Star Cruises said they suspected STM would start paying the company's debts "so they don't lose the ship at a bankruptcy auction."
