Eagle S owners could abandon tanker, lawyer says

The crude oil tanker is being held by Finnish police, who are investigating its role in damage to an undersea cable on Christmas Day

15 Jan 2025 NEWS

Joshua Minchin joshua.minchin@lloydslistintelligence.com

Michelle Wiese Bockmann michelle.bockmann@lloydslistintelligence.com

Herman Ljungberg, who represents owners Caravella LLC FZ, said Finnish authorities had ‘no jurisdiction whatsoever’ to board the tanker

THE owner of the tanker suspected of damaging an undersea cable in the Gulf of Finland may decide to abandon its vessel, the company’s lawyer said.

https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1152236/Eagle-S-owners-could-abandon-tanker-lawyer-says?  

Herman Ljungberg is representing Dubai-based Caravella LLC FZ, which is the registered owner of Cook Islands-flagged Eagle S (IMO: 9329760).

Ljungberg said the abandonment of the vessel was “one possible alternative” for the owners of the tanker, which is being held by Finnish authorities on suspicion of damaging the Estlink2 cable in the Gulf of Finland, on December 25, 2024.

He claimed Finnish authorities had “no jurisdiction whatsoever to board the vessel and conduct investigations”, citing the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Article 27.5, which says a coastal state cannot board a foreign ship or investigate crimes that happened before it entered territorial waters, providing it came from a foreign port and is just passing through territorial waters.

Lawyer for cable-cutting tanker Eagle S applies to Finland court to overturn seizure order

By Michelle Wiese Bockmann 30 Dec 2024

Police investigating aggravated criminal mischief found drag marks for dozens of kilometres where the anchor of the Cook Islands-flagged tanker damaged the Estlink 2 underwater electricity cable on Christmas Day

Read the full article here  https://www.lloydslist.com/LL1152087/Lawyer-for-cable-cutting-tanker-Eagle-S-applies-to-Finland-court-to-overturn-seizure-order

The Helsinki Police Department, which is leading the police investigation, said the police and coastguard operation took place in Finnish territorial waters.

“Due to actions taken by the authorities, Eagle S entered Finland’s territorial waters on its own. Officials boarded the vessel in Finnish territorial waters,” the department told Lloyd’s List.

Ljungberg corroborated this account. “Since the vessel had nothing to hide it obeyed the order,” he told Lloyd’s List.

“The coastguard did not give any reason for the order. The order was repeated two or three times.

“The vessel did not want to see what had happened if it had not followed the order. In some jurisdictions coastguards are well equipped with cannons.”

He said the reason Eagle S entered Finnish waters has no bearing on the applicability of Unclos Article 27.5, as the vessel did not “breach anything in Finnish territorial waters”.

Article 27 says criminal jurisdiction should not be exercised on board a foreign ship passing through territorial waters, except if the consequences extend to the coastal state. In this case, the Estlink2 power cable that connects Finland and Estonia is still out of action.

Fingrid, Finland’s state-owned electricity provider, said the electricity system was functioning normally in its statement on December 26. But if the weather becomes colder for an extended period of time or there is a period without wind, “a failure of the EstLink 2 connection may make it more likely that the power situation will become tight”, Fingrid said.

Ljungberg also believes the Finnish police also have no jurisdiction over the anchor lifted from the seabed, Finnish state-owned broadcaster reported, as it was found in international waters and is allegedly not the property of a Finnish ship.

But the Helsinki District Court has impounded the anchor until further notice, a decision Ljungberg intends to appeal.

Ljungberg also told Lloyd’s List he wanted to lift the lid on what he called the “spectacular boarding”.

“The coastguard ordered the vessel to anchor (on an unsafe place with cables and rocks) after it had ordered the vessel to territorial waters.

“The vessel said that it is not a safe place, but the coastguard insisted.”

Ljunberg said the vessel offered to lower its pilot ladder should the authorities wish to board via RIB or pilot boat, but that they insisted on boarding by helicopter.

“Entering a tanker loaded with flammable and explosive gasoline with a helicopter is hugely risky and there are rigorous safety protocols to be followed. None of the safety measures were followed,” he said.

He alleged that officers took selfies on board the vessel that they provided to the media and used their own electronic devices, a practice usually prohibited on vessels carrying explosive or flammable cargo because of the risk of sparks and electrical ignition.

The Finnish Border Guard said it would not comment on “one specific lawyer’s allegations”, citing the ongoing police investigation.

Port state control inspection

Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom completed a port state control inspection on Eagle S on January 8 and found 32 deficiencies, and has since detained the tanker pending repairs.

But Ljungberg said some of the deficiencies resulted from the police investigation.

“Some watertight doors were missing because the police had ordered the doors to be taken away. Certificates could not at first be inspected because they were on the computer which the police had confiscated,” he told Lloyd’s List.

He said he thought it was a “huge risk” to order a port state control inspection, which he said showed the vessel to be in “at least satisfactory condition”. The results of the inspection undermine allegations that the dark fleet* is substandard, Ljungberg claimed.

“As a starting point it is an insane idea to transport valuable cargoes in substandard vessels.”

Russian oil has been transported on the Baltic Sea for at least 30 years, Ljungberg said.

“Nothing has changed in the traffic pattern. Why the fuss now?”

Eagle S is still detained by both Traficom as port state control and the Finnish police, which has also imposed travel bans on nine of the ship’s crew. Ljungberg insisted that the crew were “ordinary, law-abiding seafarers from India and Georgia”.

Since the Eagle S incident, Nato has launched Baltic Sentry. The operation will involve frigates and maritime patrol aircraft to protect critical infrastructure the alliance said.

Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte, who co-hosted a Summit of Baltic Sea Allies in Helsinki on January 14, said Finland had demonstrated that firm action within the law was possible.

“Ship captains must understand that potential threats to our infrastructure will have consequences, including possible boarding, impounding and arrest,” he said.

A joint statement from the leaders of Finland, Germany, Estonia, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden said the nations are “determined to deter, detect and counter any attempts at sabotage. Any attack against our infrastructure will be met with a robust and determined response”.

“We stand ready to attribute hostile actions committed by malign actors, as appropriate.”

* Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as part of the dark fleet if it is aged 15 years or over, anonymously owned and/or has a corporate structure designed to obfuscate beneficial ownership discovery, solely deployed in sanctioned oil trades, and engaged in one or more of the deceptive shipping practices outlined in US State Department guidance issued in May 2020. The figures exclude tankers tracked to government-controlled shipping entities such as Russia’s Sovcomflot, or Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Co, and those already sanctioned.