First Olsen Tankers News

John "Jock" Newbold died Saturday, April 12, in New York. He was among the most well-known and highly respected figures in shipping and financial circles. Jock was most recently a Non-Executive Director of Castalia Partners Limited and also a member of the Advisory Board of Castalia Straits L.P. Newbold retired from Citigroup in 1997 after a 36-year career, the last 21 of which were spent with Citibank’s business with the shipping industry. From 1985 to 1997, Newbold was Division Executive in charge of the Global Shipping Division with offices in New York, London, Piraeus, Tokyo and Hong Kong. Earlier in his career, he held positions as Head of the Corporate Bank in Japan…

Dubai Drydocks has won a $22m contract from Norway's First Olsen Tankers to convert the world's largest ship, the 564,763 dwt ULCC Jahre Viking, to a specialized 4.2 billion barrel Floating Storage unit for a five-year charter by Maersk Oil for the Al Shaheen oil field off the coast of Qatar. The vessel has already arrived in Dubai with the conversion program due to be completed by June 2004. This is likely to be the final phase in a chequered history for this ship. She was originally ordered by Nomikos as a 400,000 dwt unit in the seventies in Japan, but, following the collapse of the oil markets in mid-1974, construction was halted. The hull was then purchased by Hong Kong's C Y Tung — lengthened to her current size, and sailed first as the Seawise Giant.

The All Share Index in Oslo lost a further 4.2 percent in April, and as in March the main reason for the fall was international repricing of technology stocks. However, shipping and offshore companies were not providing any help for the market, as the Shipping Index fell a solid 5.8 percent during the month. Det Søndenfjeldske (SFJ), Ocean Rig (OCR) and Stolt Comex Seaway (SCS and SCSA) all fell between 14 and 19 percent, leading the way down for offshore stocks. The share price of Det Søndenfjeldske has dropped almost 25 percent during the last two months. Also Smedvig A (SME), Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) and TGS Nopec (TGS) saw their market values fall in April. The three stocks fell 1.1, 5.4 and 5.7 percent respectively.

First Olsen Tankers Ltd. reportedly expects weak tanker markets to continue until the end of the year.