Euronav’s novel strategy in handling the implementation of the global sulphur cap moved ahead today with a chartered Scorpio tanker transferring a cargo of low sulphur fuel onto the company’s giant Oceania ULCC.
ULCC.Euronav has stood out from most other large tanker owners by opting not to install scrubbers. Instead it has moored the Oceania off Malta and is now filling it with low sulphur fuel ahead of the implementation of the sulphur cap on January 1 next year.
Oil analytics firm Vortexa said the STI Brixton tanker loaded low sulphur fuel oil from Antwerp on March 9 and is transferring its cargo via a ship-to-ship operation onto the ULCC today.
“Euronav’s chartering and fuel oil purchasing activity signals an emerging trend of shipowners becoming more active in the trading arena,” senior Vortexa trading specialist, Cosmo Kedros, told Reuters yesterday.
Euronav has two ULCCs or VPLUSes as it terms them and is now the world’s only owner of these giant ship types.
