NS AFRICA: SCF crude carrier escapes

Pirates chased a SCF crude tanker 950 miles (1,530 kilometers) south of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, off the coast of central Mozambique. Liberian-registered NS Africa took evasive action and managed to escape two approaching skiffs,

9413573 NS AFRICA A8SB4 Crude Oil Tanker 101140 2009 Liberia
Name: NS Africa / Call sign: A8SB4 / Owner: NS Africa Shipping Inc - Novorossiysk/Russia / Ship manager: Novoship JSC - Novorossiysk/Russia / Gross tonnage: 62372 GT / Home port: Monrovia / Flag: Liberia / Build: 2009.

Since December 2007 Novoship has become a member of Sovcomflot Group. The combined Sovcomflot and Novoship Group operates 130 vessels totaling more than 9.2 million deadweight tons. The tanker fleet is one of the youngest in the industry – the vessels are less than 6 years old on average.

Justice Smith’s ruling that Sergei Frank had repeatedly lied in his testimony; had fabricated the case against Skarga and Izmaylov after squads of private detectives he despatched had failed to uncover incriminating evidence; procured false witnesses; filed his claims in London because Russian law precluded his company from pursuing them in the Russian courts; made a practice of concealing his decisions from other responsible Sovcomflot officials; and pursued Skarga and Izmaylov vindictively to prevent them from opposing his scheme for merging Sovcomflot with Novoship, and selling shares in a much bigger IPO than his predecessors, acting on the advice of JP Morgan, had recommended to the government. According to the company response by Mednikov, “the [UK] Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has requested and been provided with copies of documents relating to the transactions involving the SCF Group and Mr Nikitin, which were the subject of these proceedings”. The innuendo is that Nikitin faces the investigation. But the revelation in the High Court judgement is that Frank may now be the target of criminal investigation by the UK authorities.