Greek tanker owner Minerva Marine has expanded its Suezmax fleet with the acquisition of two newly built tankers from Samsung Heavy Industries, adding vessels that were originally ordered by a Dubai-based company later sanctioned by the U.S. over alleged links to an Iranian oil-shipping network.
Minerva said on April 20 that it had taken delivery of the 157,564-dwt Minerva Kallirroi and Minerva Kalliope, both built at Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea. The vessels were constructed under hull numbers 2666 and 2667 and had previously been identified as Advantage Summit and Bhanu 1.
Minerva Marine’s fleet information
The transaction comes after a dispute between Samsung Heavy Industries and the vessels’ original buyer. According to Samsung, the ships had been ordered by Meritron DMCC, a Dubai-based company that failed to make final payments. Samsung cancelled one contract in February and terminated the second in March, citing non-payment.
The shipbuilder said it planned to recover construction costs and related losses through advance payments already received and the eventual sale of the vessels to another buyer.
The dispute subsequently escalated. On April 7, Samsung disclosed that a creditor had sought a provisional court order preventing the disposal and transfer of the vessels pending arbitration. Samsung maintained that its termination of the contracts was valid and that the claims against it lacked legal merit.
The ownership history of the two tankers has attracted particular attention because of Meritron’s subsequent designation by the U.S. Treasury.
On April 15, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned Meritron, describing it as a front company associated with the network of Iranian shipping magnate Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani. Treasury said Meritron had been used to procure new vessels and facilitate the transportation of sanctioned Iranian petroleum products. It also said Meritron had sought to acquire two newbuild vessels in South Korea during 2025 and early 2026 and had contributed tens of millions of dollars toward their construction.
That timing places Minerva’s acquisition in a sensitive context. There is no indication in the available public material that Minerva itself was sanctioned by the U.S. or that it was accused by OFAC of participating in the alleged Iranian oil network. Rather, the vessels had been ordered by an entity that was subsequently designated by OFAC, and Samsung sold the ships after terminating the original contracts.
Minerva has continued to expand despite the complicated history surrounding the two vessels. Its fleet currently includes the two new Suezmaxes, both built in 2026 with Samsung Heavy Industries and carrying Malta flags.
The company has also been active in the secondhand tanker market. In March it took delivery of the 2018-built, 112,532-dwt Minerva Pelagia, formerly Green Attitude. Minerva has additional Suezmax and Aframax tonnage on order at Chinese shipyards.
The latest deliveries are part of a broader investment campaign by the Greek owner, led by Andreas Martinos, as tanker owners continue to position themselves for potentially strong earnings across crude-oil shipping markets.
The wider Azerbaijani oil-trading connection
The Minerva transaction also comes against a backdrop of heightened scrutiny of opaque oil-trading networks involving companies and individuals connected to the international petroleum trade.
Among the names that have appeared in media reports concerning the wider network is Adnan Ahmadzade, a former SOCAR executive and oil trader in Azerbaijan. Several media reports have alleged that Ahmadzade maintained business interests through a network of companies, including Malta-based Alkagesta and Dubai-based Oilmar.
Minerva, the Martinos Family and Questions Around an Azerbaijani Oil-Trading Network
In late 2025, Maltese media linked the business activities of the Martinos family to Alkagesta Ltd, a company that reports have associated with Azerbaijani businessmen Adnan Ahmadzade and Kamran Agayev, who have been described in media reports as operating in the Mediterranean oil-trading sector. Maltese reporting identified Kamran Agayev as the registered owner of Alkagesta and alleged that he is related to Ahmadzade. These claims should be distinguished from independently established findings of ownership or control.
The reporting has also drawn attention to corporate entities associated with Minerva Marine’s operations.
One such entity is Rourke Services Ltd, a Liberian-registered company linked in shipping records to Minerva Marine Inc, the Athens-based ship-management company controlled by the Martinos family. Shipping databases, for example, identify Rourke Services as the registered owner of the tanker Minerva Marina, while Minerva Marine Inc is listed in connection with the vessel’s management.
Maritime-trade monitoring research has also linked tankers managed by Minerva Marine to the transportation of Russian crude oil and petroleum products from Black Sea ports, including Novorossiysk. BlackSeaNews reporting, for example, identifies Minerva Marina as being registered to Rourke Services Ltd and connects the vessel to shipments of Russian crude from Novorossiysk.
These facts, on their own, do not establish that Minerva Marine violated sanctions or engaged in unlawful activity. But taken together—the Martinos family’s reported business links, the allegations surrounding Alkagesta, Minerva Marine’s corporate structure and the company’s involvement in vessels carrying Russian oil—raise questions about the broader commercial networks surrounding one of Greece’s major tanker operators.
Those questions have gained additional relevance following Minerva Marine’s acquisition of two new Suezmax tankers from Samsung Heavy Industries in April 2026. The vessels had originally been ordered by Meritron DMCC, a Dubai-based company that was subsequently sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control over alleged links to an Iranian petroleum network.
The central issue is not to imply that Minerva itself is sanctioned or has engaged in wrongdoing. Rather, it is to examine how ownership, financing, management and trading relationships are structured across multiple jurisdictions—and who ultimately stands behind the companies involved.
The names of Martinos, Minerva Marine, Rourke Services, Alkagesta, Adnan Ahmadzade and Kamran Agayev have appeared in different media investigations and shipping records. Some of the reported connections remain allegations and should therefore be presented as such rather than as established legal findings.
Nevertheless, the increasingly complex corporate structures used in global shipping, combined with tighter sanctions enforcement surrounding Russian and Iranian oil, make beneficial ownership, counterparty due diligence and the provenance of vessels and cargoes increasingly important issues for major tanker operators such as Minerva Marine.
Public reporting has also linked Kamran Agayev to Alkagesta. The Maltese Herald has described Agayev as Alkagesta’s official owner and reported allegations that he is a cousin of Ahmadzade and acted on his behalf. Those allegations should be distinguished from independently established ownership or control findings.
Azerbaijani media reports have separately discussed alleged links between Ahmadzade, Agayev and companies involved in international petroleum trading. Other reports have alleged that Alkagesta was involved in transactions concerning Russian-origin oil. These claims have been reported by various outlets and should not be treated as equivalent to a finding by U.S. authorities concerning Minerva or the two Suezmax tankers.
The distinction is important: OFAC’s April 15 action specifically identified Meritron as part of the Shamkhani network. It did not identify Minerva Marine, Adnan Ahmadzade or Kamran Agayev in that designation.
For Minerva, the immediate significance of the deal is therefore less about a direct sanctions designation than about the provenance of the assets it has acquired. The two tankers moved from a cancelled newbuilding contract involving a company later sanctioned by Washington to the fleet of one of Greece’s major tanker operators.
Minerva itself lists both Minerva Kallirroi and Minerva Kalliope as 2026-built Suezmax tankers managed by the company. Its corporate news page records both deliveries on April 20.
The episode illustrates the growing importance of counterparty due diligence in shipping, where vessels can change hands after construction contracts are cancelled and where the original commercial relationships behind a ship may attract regulatory scrutiny long after the asset has moved to a new owner.
