Camilo Thame, Business Reporter

Greek firm Aegean Marine Petroleum, which set up office in Jamaica 19 months ago to sell fuel to container and cruise ships berthing at ports in Kingston and Ocho Rios, will go to court next month in its home country over a suit against it by a third party seeking commission from Aegean's local operations.

The suit claims the right to US$10 million from fuel sales in Jamaica over 12 years.

The Financial Gleaner was unable to secure comment from Aegean executives at the local office, but the firm, which is listed in the United States, noted the suit in a filing to American financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), last week.

"On November 30, 2005, a third party initiated a civil lawsuit in the Court of First Instance in Piraeus (Greece) against us seeking a payment of approximately US$10 million and legal expense," said the filing.

"The suit alleges that the plaintiff is entitled to the commissions of US$1 per ton of marine petroleum sold in Jamaica during a 12-year period, beginning March 1, 2005."

The complainant was not named in the SEC filing.

The case is scheduled to be heard on November 29, 2006.

Fuel centre

Aegean Bunkering Jamaica Limited was incorporated in Jamaica on November 25, 2004, and less than four months later, the local subsidiary opened a fuel centre to service vessels at ports in Kingston and Ocho Rios.

From the 10 months to December 31, 2005 the Jamaican operations made US$77 million in sales of marine petroleum products - excluding sales of lubricants - from 325 bunkering operations

using two bunkering tankers.

The fuel company made volume sales of 265,291 metric tonnes of marine fuel during the period.

Based on the claim, the third party would be entitled to nearly US$270,000 for the first 10 months of operations.

The Jamaican sales represented 15 per cent of Aegean's total sales of US$506 million made from 1.7 million metric tones sold, from which it made gross spread on marine fuel of US$40.8 million and operating income of $23.4 million.

Its Jamaican assets valued at US$9.7 million represented 23 per cent of total assets, and less than the claim being made in court.

The marine fuel supply business is a multibillion dollar industry worldwide. Aegean purchases marine fuel from refineries and resells and distributes the petrol through its bunkering operations.

On December 3, 2004, the Jamaican subsidiary entered into an eight-year fuel purchase agreement with state-owned Petrojam Limited for the supply of mainly MFO and MGO fuels.

For the year ended December 31, 2005, approximately 14.6 per cent of its total purchases of marine petroleum were from Petrojam, despite the explosion at the Kingston-based refinery in October 2004, which disrupted production through June 2005.

camilo.thame@gleanerjm.com