Stena Bulk Strikes Deal with Neste Oil

Stena Bulk has sold 50 percent of the tanker Stena Arctica to the Finnish oil company Neste Oil, which will also operate the vessel on a 10-year charter from 1 January, 2007 – mainly to transport oil from Primorsk to the Finnish port Porvoo in the Baltic. The 117,100 DWT Stena Arctica was delivered at the end of 2005 from the shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea and is the world’s largest tanker with the highest ice class (1A Super) currently in service. The Stena Arctica was named in January, this year, in the Port of Gothenburg and has since been deployed on the spot market transporting oil from Primorsk to Europe. Originally, the Stena Arctica had been booked for a long-term charter to a Russian company, but has now been replaced by her sisters Stena Antarctica and Stena Atlantica. Stena Bulk’s sister company Concordia Maritime, which is listed on the Nordic Exchange (former Stockholm Stock Exchange), and Neste Oil each own 50 per cent of the Stena Poseidon and the Neste Polaris, currently under construction in Croatia. These vessels will have a deadweight of 75,000 tons and are being built to ice class 1A specifications. The Stena Poseidon will be delivered at the end of 2006 and the Neste Polaris at the beginning of 2007. Both tankers have been contracted on long-term charters by Neste Oil. In 2008, Stena Bulk, together with Concordia Maritime, will operate a fleet of 12 large, ice-strengthened tankers.