A London appeal court has overturned a key notice of readiness (NOR) ruling in favour of American Eagle Tankers and found for Arcadia Petroleum, an oil trading and exploration company linked to Norwegian shipping tycoon, John Fredriksen.

The dispute centres on the January 2007 loading of the 308,000-dwt Eagle Valencia (built 2005) and the interplay between free pratique being granted, NOR being tendered, laytime beginning and the demurrage calculated on this basis.

Eagle Valencia
The Eagle Valencia was chartered in December 2006 at $60,000 a day pro rata on Shellvoy 5 terms by Arcadia to carry a Nigerian crude cargo with laytime calculated at 96 running hours.

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