STX Offshore & Shipbuilding said on Friday that Greece's Pantheon Tankers has added two MRs to its orderbook there.
The Korean yard said that two options for 50,000-dwt tankers had been declared.
The owner, part of Alpha Tankers & Freighters International, contracted four sisterships at STX last September.
Pantheon was reported to be paying $33m each for the 50,000-dwt product carriers.
KDB backing order
Shipbuilding players say STX Offshore managed to get state-owned Korea Development Bank (KDB) to issue refund guarantees for the MRs.
They add that it took the yard around two months to arrange this, which is considered to be a relatively long time.
TradeWinds reported last year that Pantheon was poised to expand its fleet with two aframax tanker newbuildings.
The Athens-based shipowner has reportedly signed a letter of intent for a pair of 114,000-dwt crude carriers at Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction (HHIC)’s Subic Bay yard in the Philippines.
The price tag is said to be between $42.5m and $43.5m each. Delivery is scheduled for the end of 2019.
Pantheon was set up in 2013 and is controlled by Anna Angelicoussis-Kanellakis, her sons, Frangiskos and Antonis; and her daughter, Maria Kanellakis.
The company currently has 21 tankers on the water: nine VLCCs, eight suezmax carriers and four aframax tankers.
It also has two 115,000-dwt aframax tankers under construction at Japan’s Namura Shipbuilding for delivery in 2018.
