Bankruptcy of bunker supplier

摘要

On 31 October 2014 the owners of the vessel Res Cogitans placed an order for the supply of bunkers with OW Bunker Malta Ltd (OWBM) at a price of US$443,800. The order was confirmed by OWBM's Sales Order Confirmation of the same date, which named OWBM as "Seller" and gave a delivery date of 3 or 4 November 2014. It provided that the physical supplier of the bunkers would be "Rosneft" and that payment would be made within 60 days from the date of delivery upon presentation of OWBM's invoice. OWBM assigned its right to payment to its bank, ING Bank NV (ING). Notice of the assignment was duly given. On the same day OWBM contracted with its Danish parent company, OW Bunker & Trading AS (OWBAS) to supply the bunkers. OWBAS in turn contracted with Rosneft Marine (UK) Ltd (Rosneft), a UK company. The OWBAS/Rosneft contract required OWBAS to make payment in the sum of US$416,000 within 30 days of delivery. Rosneft in turn contracted with its Russian subsidiary, RN-Bunker Ltd, and it was the latter company which supplied the bunkers to the vessel at Tuapse in the Black Sea on 4 November 2014. As was usual in the bunker supply trade, all the transactions included retention of title clauses, and gave permission for the shipowner to consume the bunkers in the meanwhile.