OW Bunker Trustees Await Final Court Ruling Over Disputed Fuel Claims

London's Court of Appeal will likely determine whether numerous competing claims on payment on fuel will go to the OW Bunker estate or to other oil suppliers.

The trustees of OW Bunker have won two out of three court battles which could set the precedent for who should receive payment for oil sold by the failed fuel supplier around the time of its bankruptcy, ShippingWatch reports. 

The trustees are now reportedly waiting upon a final decision from the Court of Appeal in London over whether other oil suppliers deserve the payments for millions of dollars worth of fuel or if OW Bunker should receive it. 

So far, both an arbitrator in the UK and the High Court in London have sided with the trustees. 

"If the Court of Appeal rules in favor of the OW Bunker estate, the ruling will form a legal precedent and many of the oil suppliers will likely adapt to this in one way or another," said Gorrissen Federspiel trustee and lawyer John Sommer Schmidt.

"It seems unlikely that anyone would want to spend money on a court case they stand little chance of winning."

He added that he expects this final ruling to determine whether many of the lawsuits made between the bankruptcy and now continue or are called off, and will finally delineate and clarify the relationship between OW Bunker, its suppliers and its customers.

"In any case, that's what we expect, but this depends on reactions and how the ruling is interpreted," he said.

The fuel supplier declared bankruptcy late last year after it was announced that the company's Singapore subsidiary Dynamic Oil Trading (DOT) had experienced an alleged $125 million fraud, as well as a $150 million risk management-related loss. 

The result has been a flurry of lawsuits as numerous shipowners, financiers, banks, suppliers and traders made competing payment demands. 

Earlier this week Ship & Bunker reported three product tankers were arrested by ING Bank (ING) as the Dutch financial giant began to ramp up efforts to collect outstanding OW Bunker debts.