EMAS Offshore has failed to meet demands set out by Seabird Exploration in the wake of two bareboat charters being scrapped on March 17. Seabird canned the charters of the Lewek Toucan and Lewek Pelican to the struggling Ezra Holdings-linked venture in the two weeks ago, demanding nearly $54m in compensation for the failure to stick to the contract, of which around $17.5m had to be paid within 10 days, something EMAS Offshore has failed to do. Seabird has said it intends to keep around $36m from the original charterers’ credit agreement signed last year. Seabird’s legal team is now looking at how to proceed against EMAS Offshore.
EMAS Offshore, an offshore marine construction contractor held by Ezra, is suspended from trading in both Singapore and Oslo for its failure to publish its annual results on time.
Earlier this month, Chinese banking giant ICBC terminated the bareboat charter of another EMAS Offshore ship, claiming $194.5m against the struggling company. Ten days ago EMAS Offshore admitted it might not be able to carry on as a going concern with sister firm Ezra recently filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US.
Another Ezra-linked entity, Emas Chiyoda Subsea, also filed for bankruptcy protection in the US.