AmericasTankers

International Seaways offloading ships to make room for VLCC purchase

American tanker operator International Seaways is continuing to sell off some of its older vessels as it comes near to closing a deal to buy six VLCCs from Belgian international shipping firm Euronav.

International Seaways is aiming to lower the average age of its fleet while increasing its total capacity.

Since the turn of the year it has sold four ships – an Aframax, a VLCC, an ultra large crude carrier (ULCC) and a medium range (MR) oil tanker. It has also sealed the sale and leaseback of two other Aframaxes.

The purchase price of the six VLCCs (five built in 2016, one in 2015) from Euronav is $434 million inclusive of assumed debt.

Euronav opted late last year to sell the six ships as it was doing its own $504 million deal to take over rival tanker business Gener8 Maritime.

Completion of the International Seaways six-ship purchase is dependent on the Euronav-Gener 8 takeover going through and on International Seaways securing a loan facility.

Donal Scully

With 28 years experience writing and editing for newspapers in the UK and Hong Kong, Donal is now based in California from where he covers the Americas for Splash as well as ensuring the site is loaded through the Western Hemisphere timezone.
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