Tanker News

Several Greek-managed tankers transporting Russian oil to Asia are increasingly avoiding the Red Sea, opting instead for the longer route around Africa, due to escalating security threats from Houthi attacks, three oil traders and LSEG shipping data show.The rerouting follows a deadly drone and speedboat assault earlier this month on a Liberian-flagged, Greek-operated bulk carrier off Yemen, which killed four seafarers. The Iran-backed Houthi group also sank another vessel in July…

Shipping company Stena Bulk confirmed that it is in the final stage of executing its plan to reflag five of its Suezmax tankers under the Swedish flag. The first vessel—Stena Sunrise—is now fully prepared for reflagging, which is scheduled to take place in Singapore at the end of July 2025.This milestone follows the company’s original ambition to complete all preparatory steps by 30 June, a goal that has now been fulfilled. Only the final practical steps remain, to be executed during the in-port flag change of Stena Sunrise.

A limpet mine may have caused a blast that damaged a Greek tanker sailing off Libya's coast last week, the fifth such incident to hit commercial shipping in the region in recent months, maritime security sources said on Tuesday.The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Vilamoura had left the Libyan port of Zuetina on June 27 to head to Gibraltar with some 1 million barrels of oil when there was an explosion in the engine room, its Greece-based operator TMS said on Monday.According to initial assessments, a limpet mine was a likely cause of the blast, four maritime security sources said.A company rep

Okeanis Eco Tankers (NYSE: ECO / OSE: OET) has secured a new $65 million term loan facility to finance the repurchase of its VLCC Nissos Kea under a previously announced sale-and-leaseback option. The new financing, led by E.SUN Commercial Bank, extends OET’s strategy of strengthening its capital structure and diversifying its financing sources.The seven-year secured loan carries an interest rate of Term SOFR plus 135 basis points and will be repaid through quarterly installments of $0.9 million, with a $39.8 million balloon payment due at maturity.

Performance Shipping Inc., a global shipping company specializing in the ownership of tanker vessels, announced that, through a separate wholly-owned subsidiary, it has entered into a long-term time charter contract with Mercuria Energy Trading S.A. for its fourth newbuilding, the previously announced LR1 tanker scheduled for delivery in early 2027.The vessel will be chartered to Mercuria for a firm period of four years, through early 2031, at a daily gross charter rate of US$23,750. The agreement provides Mercuria with options to extend the charter for up to three additional one-year periods.

The U.S. issued Iran-related sanctions targeting more than 30 individuals and entities it said are part of a "shadow banking" network that has laundered billions of dollars through the global financial system, the Treasury Department said on Friday.The sanctions, which target Iranian nationals and some entities in the United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong, were announced as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is working to get a new nuclear deal with Tehran. Treasury said…

The captain of a container ship that crashed into a U.S. tanker off Britain's east coast pleaded not guilty on Friday in a London court to manslaughter by gross negligence over the death of a crew member in the collision.Russian national Vladimir Motin, 59, was captain of the Portuguese-flagged Solong that hit the Stena Immaculate tanker, carrying military jet fuel, on March 10.Motin was charged four days later with causing the death of Filipino national and Solong crew member Mark Pernia, 38, who is missing and presumed dead.He appeared at the Old Bailey by videolink on Friday and pleaded not guilty to one count of gross negligence manslaughter.(Reuters/Reporting by Sam Tobin; editing by William James)

BIMCO and the Association of Ship Brokers & Agents (USA) Inc. (ASBA) have revised ASBATANKVOY, the only dedicated tanker form not associated with an oil major. The updated version of the voyage charter party addresses changes in the tanker trade, commercial practices and regulations since its last revision.The original edition of ASBATANKVOY has become outdated since it was published by ASBA in 1977. Since then, various aspects of modern tanker trade have changed along with the regulatory framework such as safety…

WiseStella has announced that its technology has played a pivotal role in helping a globally trading tanker operator secure a landmark charter agreement with a prominent oil major.By using the WiseStella’s Behavioral Competency Assessment Tool (BCA) prior to a TMSA audit, the tanker crews were able to demonstrate behavioral competencies beyond standard expectations, resulting in the ship manager being recognized for Best Practice by the oil major.The TMSA review highlighted the undisclosed operator’s robust processes for managing organizational change…

The Panama-flagged vessel, the Eventin, was moved on Thursday (April 17) to the Nordperd anchorpoint, about 3 nautical miles from its previous position. According to official sources it is now at an anchorage where ships carrying dangerous goods can safely moor without affecting harbour operations or the surrounding area. The operation was carried out by tugs commissioned and monitored by German customs.The Eventin was found drifting out of control off Germany's Baltic Sea coast in January.

Stena Bulk has confirmed its intention to register up to five of its Suezmax vessels under the Swedish flag. A Suezmax tanker is one of the largest types of tankers and is approximately 275 meters long with a gross tonnage of 81,000 tonnes. Up to five of these vessels will be the largest ships under the Swedish flag.In recent years, Sweden has made progress to improve its competitiveness as a shipping nation. Reforms such as the removal of stamp duty on ship registration, improvements to the Swedish Ship Register…

The charred remains of the ship that ploughed into a tanker in the North Sea were towed into a Scottish port on Friday (March 28).The ship, Portuguese-flagged Solong, hit the anchored Stena Immaculate, a U.S. military-contracted tanker, on March 10, causing a fire, and forcing both crews to abandon their vessels.Initial concerns of an environmental disaster subsided as assessments showed the jet fuel had mostly burned off and there was no sign of other leaks from either ship.All 23 crew members of the Stena Immaculate and 13 of the 14 crew on the Solong were rescued. A Filipino national and Solong crew member Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, died in the incident.(Reuters)

Baltic Exchange introduced a series of green fuel options to its FuelEU voyage and compliance cost calculator as more shipowners, traders and charterers seek to understand the commercial implications of this regulation on their voyage costs.Biodiesel, bio-LNG, bio-LPG, green methanol, green hydrogen and green ammonia have all been added to the calculator, either as green fuel or blend options. Baltic Exchange’s FuelEU Maritime calculator provides an overview of the cost implications for the selected option relative to the Baltic standard for that route.

Asia's crude oil imports are off to a weak start in 2025, as top importer China continues to buy less and new sanctions put the brakes on cargoes from the continent's top supplier Russia.Asia's imports for the first two months of the year are on track to be 26.17 million barrels per day (bpd), down 780,000 bpd from the 26.96 million bpd for the same period last year, according to data compiled by LSEG Oil Research.The drop of about 3% in crude imports by Asia in the first two…

In the case of the oil tanker suspected of purposefully dragging its anchor to break a subsea power line and telecom cables, the plot thickens.The owner of an oil tanker seized by Finland on suspicion of breaking the power line and four telecoms cables in the Baltic Sea last week is seeking the release of the ship, a lawyer representing the company said on Monday. Finnish police and coast guard officials boarded the Cook Islands-registered Eagle S on Thursday and brought it to…

Last month's CrowdStrike IT outage that grounded scores of flights created new problems for California's fuel market, forcing U.S. traders to store jet fuel destined for the state on waterborne tankers, storage broker The Tank Tiger told Reuters this week.The outage exacerbated existing constraints on petroleum storage in California, where policies aimed at ending fossil fuel usage have made it harder to setup new oil and gas infrastructure."When it comes to petroleum products storage in California, there has been no room at the inn for several years," Ernie Barsamian, founder of U.S.

Seatrium Limited has secured a series of repairs and upgrades contracts with an aggregate value of S$180 million.All projects, with the exception of one, will be completed by end 2024. The range of complex contracts include major repairs on offshore vessels, naval vessels, ferries, LNG carriers, tankers, as well as damage repair.Seatrium has secured a series of four offshore refits, including two jack-ups and two drillships, from esteemed regular customers, Velesto Energy Berhad, Zonda Drilling AS and Seadrill Limited.

Large scale route diversions as a consequence of the Red Sea/Suez Canal crisis have seen deadweight demand for crude and product tankers increase by 5.5% and 4.5% respectively in 2024.In its Q2 2024 report, MSI finds that the market is currently in an unfamiliar equilibrium after two years of extreme volatility. This has been supported by wider stability in oil markets and falling vessel deliveries.Analysis of market movements in the first half of 2024 finds that deadweight demand growth far outstrips that of oil demand and trade.

Swiss marine power company WinGD, Swedish marine technology leader Alfa Laval and the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) will work with Korean shipbuilder K Shipbuilding (KSB) on the development of an ammonia-fueled MR tanker design.Two agreement follows the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in April. The design will feature a 6X52DF‑A engine from WinGD.WinGD will work with KSB to deliver fuel gas system specifications suitable for the vessel application and the selected engine, while Alfa Laval will deliver the detailed documentation for the final fuel gas system design.

The maritime industry has seen a very long sequence of environmental regulations since the first implementation of MARPOL in the early 1970’s. All of these regulations have very much benefitted the ocean environment and also our industry to some degree. One of those regulations, OPA90, has had an outsized effect to an extent that it may no longer be as effective as it was in recent years due to its own success.Tanker oil spills in the United States have become so rare that people with actual U.S.

MOL Chemical Tankers has reached a deal to acquire the business of Fairfield-Maxwells' Fairfield Chemical Carriers in an all-cash transaction.Under the agreement, MOL Chemical Tankers would obtain 100% of the shares in Fairfield Chemical Carriers for about $400 million, subject to change depending on the price adjustment under the share purchase agreement.Fairfield Chemical Carriers’ fleet of 36 chemical tankers would dovetail with MOL Chemical Tankers’ fleet of 85 chemical tankers.

Djibouti-registered tanker YOUNG YONG ran aground off Takong Kecil in the Riau Islands,  Indonesia in the Singapore Strait at around 2020h on 26 October, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said Monday. The master of the tanker informed the MCA of the grounding.According to MPA. before the grounding, MPA's Port Operations Control Centre (POCC) issued early shallow water warnings through its Vessel Traffic Information System (VTIS) to the tanker on the potential risk of its  grounding. MPA also said it had alerted the Indonesian authorities immediately after the incident happened.Credit: MarineTraffic.com "The Indonesian authorities are leading refloatation efforts for the  tanker…

Greenpeace said it prevented on Thursday a tanker from unloading Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) at Finnish state-owned Gasum's terminal in Nynashamn on Sweden's east coast.The environmental campaigning network in a statement called on the Swedish government to immediately stop the import of Russian fossil LNG.It said a Greenpeace vessel and activists in kayaks outside the loading dock had prevented the LNG tanker Coral Energy from docking, while other activists had climbed into the cranes used to unload the gas."The fact Russian fossil gas is still allowed to flow into Sweden…