GOLDEN VEGA (IMO 9773167) detained at Shanghai, October 2026
The Panama-flagged chemical/oil products tanker Golden Vega was detained at Shanghai on 12 October 2026, its second detention in under four months. A vessel that sailed through its first nine years of service without a single detention has now accumulated two in quick succession under the same ownership and management that has been in place since delivery.
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Golden Vega was detained by Chinese port state control authorities at Shanghai on 12 October 2026. The vessel's recognised organisation is Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK), and the ISM company on record is NYK Energy Ocean Shipmanagement Pte Ltd, Singapore. Specific deficiency codes and deficiency counts have not yet been published. At the time of the detention, the vessel's AIS data showed her at 0.3 knots in the China Coast area with a listed destination of Taicang.
The vessel
Golden Vega is a 2016-built chemical/oil products tanker of 7,301 GT and 11,656 DWT, measuring 119.6 metres LOA with a beam of 20.8 metres. She is powered by a MAN 6S35ME-B9 two-stroke diesel engine. The vessel has flown the Panamanian flag since delivery in June 2016 and has never changed name. She has been classed with Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK, IACS member) since delivery. At ten years old, she sits in the younger half of the global chemical tanker fleet.
Inspection history
The PSC record tells a clear story of two phases. From delivery in mid-2016 through to late 2024, Golden Vega was inspected twelve times across the Tokyo and Indian Ocean MoUs and came through with a near-spotless record: zero detentions and only four deficiencies total across those twelve inspections. Nine of those inspections returned zero deficiencies. The vessel passed clean through ports in Japan, China, South Korea, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Australia. That record broke sharply in June 2025. An initial inspection at Tanjung Priok, Indonesia on 23 June 2025 uncovered 16 deficiencies and resulted in Golden Vega's first-ever detention. A follow-up inspection the next day cleared the vessel. A subsequent follow-up at Isabel, Philippines in July 2025 also returned clean. But the February 2026 initial inspection at Isabel still recorded one deficiency, and now Shanghai has produced a second detention in roughly 16 months. The most recent clean inspection was at Chittagong on 19 September 2026, just 23 days before the Shanghai detention. That a vessel can clear one port state inspection and be detained at another within a month is not uncommon, but it underscores the variability of inspection regimes and the significance of the Shanghai finding. Of the vessel's 16 inspections on record (excluding the current detention), 14 were under the Tokyo MoU and two under the Indian Ocean MoU. The overall deficiency rate of 1.3 per inspection is modest, but that average is heavily skewed by the 16-deficiency Tanjung Priok event.
Ownership and management
Golden Vega's ownership and management structure has been entirely stable since delivery on 14 June 2016. The registered owner is Betty Mild Maritime, a single-purpose entity care of ENEOS Ocean Corp in Yokohama. ENEOS Ocean Corp (IMO company 0297035) serves as both ship manager and commercial manager, operating a fleet of 30 vessels from its Yokohama headquarters. ISM management sits with NYK Energy Ocean Shipmanagement Pte Ltd (IMO company 5214515), a Singapore-based operator with a 35-vessel fleet. There has been no management churn whatsoever in the vessel's ten-year history. The ENEOS Ocean/NYK Energy Ocean pairing reflects the broader NYK Group and ENEOS Holdings relationship in Japanese tanker operations. The absence of any ownership or management change means the recent deterioration in inspection performance cannot be attributed to a transitional period or new operator unfamiliarity.
Risk profile
VesselScore rates Golden Vega at 59.5 out of 100, placing her in the "above average risk" calibration band with a modelled detention probability of 5.09%. The primary driver is the detention history component (c2), which scored the maximum 20 penalty points on the back of the June 2025 Tanjung Priok detention. The deficiency rate component (c1) added 13.5 out of a possible 15 penalty points, reflecting the spike caused by the 16-deficiency event. Notably, several risk factors that commonly elevate scores for other vessels are absent here. Flag and class risk (c5) scores zero; Panama is a mainstream flag and ClassNK is an IACS member society. Manager churn (c4) scores zero, reflecting the decade of stable management. Age baseline (c6) contributes just 4 points. AIS behaviour (c9) adds 3 points, driven by three loitering events with no AIS gaps, which is unremarkable for a vessel trading in Southeast Asian and Chinese coastal waters. Sanctions screening (c10) and casualty history (c11) are both clear. The score, in effect, is being driven almost entirely by the PSC record of the last 16 months.
What to watch
The immediate priority is the release timeline from Shanghai and the nature of the deficiencies cited. Two detentions in four months on a ten-year-old vessel from a well-established Japanese management platform is unusual and will draw attention. Charterers should request the full deficiency list from both the Shanghai and Tanjung Priok detentions to establish whether there is an overlapping category, particularly structural, fire safety, or ISM-related. The vessel's VesselScore will recalculate once the Shanghai detention enters the formal PSC record, and a second detention within the rolling window will keep the c2 component at maximum penalty. The next PSC inspection anywhere in the Tokyo MoU region is now very likely to be targeted rather than routine. Any vetting submission in the near term should anticipate questions about corrective actions across both detentions.
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