Financially troubled Brightoil Petroleum has announced that the company was served with a petition filed by a creditor with the High Court of Hong Kong for the winding up of the company on the grounds that the company is insolvent and unable to pay $25.68m of debts.
The petition will be heard on July 17, and Brightoil said it is seeking legal advice on the matter.
Currently, Brightoil is dealing with another wind-up petition against its subsidiary Brightoil Singapore, filed by another creditor in the High Court of Singapore.
According to the company, its tanker fleet comprised of five VLCCs, four aframax tankers and six bunker vessels have been arrested by creditors and its marine transportation business has been suspended.
Following the recent sale of the company’s VLCC Brightoil Glory, Brightoil has had another three vessels sold by courts.
The company’s 2012-built VLCC Brightoil Gravity, which was arrested in South Korea, was sold for KRW72.44bn ($61.28m), while the 2010-built aframax tanker Brightoil Lion and the 2013-built VLCC Brightoil Grace, which were arrested in Singapore, were sold for S$36.6m ($26.8m) and S$75.1m ($55m) respectively.
Brightoil said it doesn’t know the identities of the buyers at the moment.
Shipbroking house Intermodal identified Greek owner Delta Tankers as the buyer of Brightoil Grace. The company also acquired Brightoil Glory last month. Advanced Shipping & Trading reported Singaopore owner Eastern Pacific bought Brightoil Lion.
Brightoil will use the proceeds from the sale of the vessels to repay liabilities and it anticipates that the rest of the tanker fleet will continue to be sold.
Earlier this month, Brightoil hired its former chairman Sit Kwong Lam back as a strategic adviser of the group.
Photo: Thomas Timlen
