Iranian companies and a Romanian rig owner are battling it out over three jack-ups through Iranian and Sharjah courts and on the high seas in the Persian Gulf amid allegations of hijacking and gun attacks.
Oriental Oil Company, which leased the Fortuna, Orizont and Atlas rigs from OMV Petrom two years ago for five years and sub-leased them to Petroiran Development Company (Pedco), accused the Romanian side of breaching its contract and illegally towing away the Fortuna last week.
Romania's Grup Servicii Petroliere (GSP), which last year took over the three rigs from OMV-Petrom, said it towed the Fortuna away after obtaining permission from an Iranian court.
Oriental said GSP had obtained release of a court restraining order, but the order was back in place by the time it moved the rig.
Calling the Fortuna incident last week a hijacking, Pedco managing director Mostafa Khoee sent a helicopter to the Orizont this week to establish possession.
However, the crew on board, said to number 26, reportedly placed objects on the helipad to prevent the aircraft from landing.
GSP in Bucharest raised the alarm, claiming that its rig had come under fire by a helicopter, later saying the attack was by a military vessel, and that troops had temporarily boarded the rig.
Oriental's Dubai-based general manager Khosrow Arabi and Khoee denied any shots had been fired, accusing the Romanians of indulging in propaganda.
They said a military vessel was sent over by the Kish Island court to enforce its restraining order and to allow the Pedco helicopter to land.
"Absolutely no shots were fired," Arabi told Upstream.
"The court asked a military ship to go to the rig and inform them to allow the helicopter to land and it landed and everything is normal now," Khoee said.
The third Romanian rig, Atlas, is in Sharjah waters under a separate restraining order from a Sharjah court, Arabi said.
"So this is not a case of Iranian courts favouring the Iranian side," he said.
Both Oriental, an Iranian-owned private company based in Dubai and on Kish island, and GSP are seeking arbitration by the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. Oriental said the Iranian and Sharjah court orders are designed to prevent GSP from moving the rigs until the case is resolved.
GSP says Oriental breached its lease contract by failing to open a letter of credit and by sub-leasing the Fortuna and Orizont to Pedco.
"The only reason they (GSP) want (the rigs back) is because they can get more than double the dayrates agreed with us back in 2004 and 2005," Arabi said.
The Fortuna and Orizont were on a dayrate of $40,000, agreed with OMV Petrom in 2004 and reaffirmed with GSP in 2005 with the proviso that the rate would go up to $47,500 if the rigs were sub-leased to Pedco, Arabi said. The Atlas, which had been refurbished, was at a dayrate of $60,000, he said. "GSP can now get a dayrate of $120,000 for the Atlas and more than $100,000 for the Fortuna and Orizont," he said. "So they want to get out of their agreement with us."
The Romanian Foreign Ministry said it had scheduled a meeting with Iranian officials this week to discuss the issue.
In Brussels, the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine&General Workers' Union condemned what it called Iran's military action and expressed concern over the safety of the Orizont.
© Upstream 2006
