Oil Tanker News

Nothing is left to chance when Korean shipyards Samsung Heavy Industries and Hyundai Heavy Industries are building giant gas tankers worth billions of dollars."It’s as close to reality as we can possibly get," says Project Manager Lars Foged from Svanehøj, which designs and manufactures deep well and in-line pumps for applications in areas such as relief of liquefied gas, management of gas fuel, engine cooling, fire protection and scrubber technology.In recent months, Foged and his colleagues have been busy in the pump factory’s 35-metre test tower in Aalborg, Denmark.

If one ever needed proof that, no matter how dire the situation, there is always a silver lining, look no further than the crude tanker market, which has seen it day rates skyrocket in the face of a global pandemic that has effectively ground world commerce to a crawl.As is the case with other gravity defying business phenomena, geopolitics is a central factor, in this case a battle between Russia and Saudi Arabia to flood the world with oil in the face of declining demand and…

Supertanker freight rates are on the rise for a second time this month as producers, refiners and traders scramble to secure ships to transport crude or store a fast-growing global glut of oil, industry sources said.Freight rates for very large crude-oil carriers (VLCC) along the Middle East Gulf to China route were assessed at about $180,000 a day on Monday, up from some $125,000 on Friday and a weekly low of about $90,000 a day on Wednesday, according to several ship broking sources.Its difficult to say whether or not the rates will be sustained…

The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the outbreak of the novel coronavirus a pandemic. There is little doubt that this will have significant implications for the shipping industry. But to what extent? BIMCO expects that the strict containment measures imposed by governments around the world will result in substantially lower global economic growth and consequentially, lower demand for shipping. Container and dry bulk shipping are at the front line when it comes to feeling the fallout…

The coronavirus pandemic is impacting global shipping demand for 2020 negatively. The speed of the virus spread makes it difficult to assess the full consequences. Nevertheless, we see a need to update our 2020 forecast to make some of this massive uncertainty tangible.What is going on in addition to the coronavirus pandemic?Geopolitical tensions that made the OPEC+ alliance break down, has subsequently made the crude oil tanker spot freight market erupt. The events that followed the breakdown - and those that are likely to follow…

PAO Sovcomflot (SCF Group), a Russian maritime shipping company specializing in petroleum and LNG shipping, announced that it has taken delivery of four newbuildings during last year.Three ‘Green Funnel’ LNG-fuelled Aframax crude oil tankers (Korolev Prospect, Vernadsky Prospect, Samuel Prospect) and Mikhail Lazarev, an Arctic MR shuttle tanker transporting crude oil for the Novy Port project, are now under a long-term contract with Gazprom Neft.All vessels are designed to the highest industry standards of safety and sustainability…

Kuwait Oil Tanker Company (KOTC) said that it received the giant liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker, Umm Ruwaisat, as part of a major fleet overhaul.Accoding to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), KOTC has entered the fourth phase of its fleet overhaul, which entails the delivery of eight carriers, three of which are gas tankers built by South Korean ship building firm Hyundai MIPO.The fourth phase of the fleet development includes the delivery of eight tankers of which three are giant LNG tankers built by Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries Co…

Korean Register (KR) has completed a comprehensive cyber security survey of the chemical/oil tanker SONGA HAWK and has certified the ship to be fully compliant in all areas, the very first ship to achieve the certification.Songa Ship management manages and operates 18 chemical/oil tankers and five semi-submersible vessels. The company signed a cyber security contract (valid for five years) with KR in 2018, covering its fleet of 23 vessels.KR conducted a cyber security audit of Songa Ship management and certified the company to be fully compliant in all areas in 2019…

The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said it had foiled an attack on an oil tanker off the country's coast, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported on Wednesday.The tanker was sailing towards the Gulf of Aden when it was targeted by four boats, with one of the unmanned vessels "trying to explode it", coalition spokesman Turki al-Malki said in the statement carried on SPA.

A sailor aboard an oil tanker anchored off Venezuela's coast died on Saturday, three people with knowledge of the incident said, marking the second death in less than a week involving personnel aboard ships serving the crisis-stricken OPEC nation.Juan Carlos Navarrete, a 58-year-old Cuban national serving as a helmsman aboard the Petion Panamax tanker, died after falling overboard while the tanker was anchored in Amuay Bay in western Venezuela, one of the sources, union leader Ivan Freites…

U.S. refiner Citgo said the Gerd Knutsen oil tanker, which had been carrying crude claimed by both the company and Venezuelan parent PDVSA, departed Venezuela's Jose Terminal on Thursday and entered international waters on Friday morning.The tanker over the past week discharged its 1 million barrel cargo, worth some $57 million, in Venezuela after being stranded for over a year off the South American country's coast amid fallout over U.S. sanctions on PDVSA, designed to force out socialist President Nicolas Maduro.The tanker discharged after Citgo…

Oil tanker firm Frontline's earnings are in the black so far in the first quarter despite strong headwinds from low freight rates, it's top executive said on Thursday."We are at current rates still running at a profit," Chief Executive Robert Hvide Macleod told a news conference. (Reporting by Victoria Klesty, editing by Terje Solsvik)

Oil tanker firm Frontline warned on Thursday that the coronavirus outbreak will hurt its results in the near term, even as the group reported sharp gains in earnings for the final quarter of 2019.Frontline's net profit for the October-December period rose fourfold year-on-year to an 11-year high of $108.8 million, but still lagging an average forecast of $127.1 million in a Refinitiv poll of analysts."Primarily due to the effect of the coronavirus, we have a near-term macro headwind with a slowdown in oil demand, particularly in China," Chief Executive Robert Hvide Macleod said in a statement.

FSL Trust Management Pte., the trustee-manager of First Ship Lease Trust, has announced the sale of the crude oil tanker FSL Shanghai.FSL Trust Management has executed a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) to sell the crude oil tanker to an unaffiliated third party and has received the initial 10% deposit in escrow.FSL Shanghai, is a South Korean, 2007-built 115,000 DWT crude oil tanker.Completion of the disposal is scheduled to take place before the end of March 2020. The net proceeds…

Crude oil tanker company Euronav said that it has disposed one of its oldest Suezmax vessels, the 2003-built Finesse.The international shipping enterprise which focuses on oil transport by sea informed that it sold the 2003-built, 149,994 dwt for USD 21.8 million.A capital gain on the sale of approximately USD 8.3 million will be recorded during the current quarter. The vessel has been delivered to her new owners."Euronav considers regular fleet rejuvenation an important function of vessel management in providing quality services to our clients…

December could boast another all-time high for US seaborne crude oil exports, totaling 13.9 million metric toes and exceeding the previous October record by almost a million metric tons. In 2019, 133 million metric tons of sweet US crude oil was exported by sea, a 51% increase from 2018.Due to the US shale revolution, the country became a net seaborne crude oil exporter in October 2019, and the record-breaking exports in December solidified the trend, as imports for the month amounted to 11.5 million metric tons crude oil.

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates are "working to put out a fire that broke out aboard an oil tanker 21 miles off the coast of Sharjah after receiving a distress message. A proper investigation is in progress," an official at the UAE National Media Council said on Wednesday, citing the UAE Federal Transport Authority – Land & Maritime (FTA).The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said earlier on Wednesday that it had received reports of a vessel on fire northwest of the UAE emirate of Sharjah.(Reporting by Ghaida Ghantous and Alaa Swilam; Editing by Bernadette Baum)

Standard Drilling, an offshore driller turned offshore support vessel owner, has now decided to make another shift in its game.The company, which in 2013 sold off its offshore drilling rigs, only to return as offshore vessel owner in 2016, on Tuesday said it would enter the tanker market by acquiring a 33.3% ownership in a newly built VLCC.Delivery from the yard, Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering Co in Korea, is expected later this week. The purchase price of the VLCC is $106 million.Standard Drilling will invest $36.5 million…

The Greek oceangoing vessel operator Capital Ship Management Corp. (CSMC) took successful delivery of the newbuilding vessel M/T ‘Aitolos’.The 115,000 dwt, eco-type crude oil tanker is built by Daehan Shipbuilding Co., Ltd, S.Korea, said a press note from the ship management services provider.M/T ‘Aitolos’ is the first of two sister ships to be delivered in 2020.Capital Group currently operates a fleet of 78 vessels including 48 tankers (10 VLCCs, 4 Suezmaxes, 7 Aframaxes, 26 MR/Handy product tankers and 1 small tanker)…

A flotilla of oil tankers is sailing empty from Europe and the Mediterranean toward the U.S. Gulf Coast to take advantage of surging shipping rates, according to shipping sources and Refinitiv Eikon data on Monday.Eight tankers, an unusually high number, are in the Atlantic and steaming to the United States, with capacity of up to 5.6 million barrels of oil combined, the people said. Freight rates for Aframax vessels out of the U.S. Gulf coast hit record levels last month, drawing…

Britain's navy will accompany UK-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz to provide protection after the U.S. killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani inflamed tensions in the region.Britain's defence minister, Ben Wallace, ordered the HMS Montrose and HMS Defender to prepare to return to escort duties in the major oil shipping route as Prime Minister Boris Johnson came in for criticism for his silence over the killing.Media reports have said Johnson is on holiday in the Caribbean."The government will take all necessary steps to protect our ships and citizens at this time…

Belgium-based crude oil tanker company Euronav has entered into a sale and leaseback agreement for three very large crude carriers (VLCC) vessels with Taiping & Sinopec Financial Leasing Ltd Co.The vessels were sold for a net en-bloc purchase price of USD 126 million. Under the agreement, Euronav will subsequently enter into a 54-month bareboat charter contract.The three VLCCs are the Nautica (2008 – 307,284), Nectar (2008 – 307,284) and Noble (2008 – 307,284), which were all…

The captain of a Vietnamese oil tanker has been jailed for over five years in Singapore for his role in a scheme that saw around $150 million of oil stolen from Shell's biggest refinery over several years.Doan Xuan Than, 47, was sentenced to 66 months in prison on Thursday, a spokesman for the State Courts of Singapore said, becoming the second person jailed in a case that also involves former employees of Royal Dutch Shell who allegedly conspired to siphon oil from the firm's Singapore refinery.The theft…