Stena Bulk, which recently confirmed the order at Samsung Shipyard for two in-house designed Suezmax tankers for delivery in 2011, has now placed further orders together with partners and the Angolan oil company Sonanagol.
The first two vessels, to be named Stena Superior and Stena Suède, have been designed with the help of Stena’s design department. The result is dramatically improved energy efficiency, which will, among other things, reduce fuel and bunker consumption by up to 15% compared with most efficient, conventionally designed Suezmax tankers currently in operation.
Stena Bulk and Samsung have confirmed that options on a further four vessels in the series have been signed, which means that the newbuilding order with Samsung Shipbuilding has been increased to a total of six tankers, with delivery of the units now added set for the end of 2012.
This news follows on Sonangol’s announcement of the company’s order for five new 160,000-dwt tankers from DSME Shipbuilding in South Korea. These tankers are expected to be delivered from mid-2011 to the beginning of 2013. Sonangol has also confirmed that the five new tankers will immediately enter the pool on delivery. This means that the Stena Bulk and Sonangol partnership will bring up to 12 modern Suezmax tankers to their pool.
Stena’s close collaboration with Sonangol, the national shipping company of the West African oil producing nation Angola, is entering its sixth year of successful operation with the aim of building up a total fleet of 25 new Suezmax tankers with an average age of three years. In the last 12 of 16 quarters, the pool has posted the best revenues of all the competing Suezmax pools as well as topping the index.
Finally, Stena Bulk also announced that as part of its ambition to modernize the fleet, three of the older vessels in the pool, the Nordic Voyager (built 1997), the Nordic Jupiter (built 1998), and the Nordic Freedom will be returned to their owner, Nordic American Tankers, shortly.
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