Creditors of Hong Kong-headquartered Brightoil Petroleum have turned their attention to the disposal of the company’s bunker tankers that have been under arrest in Singapore.
The Sheriff of Singapore will auction three of six Brightoil bunker tankers on 13 September. The trio will be sold by individual sealed tenders, with offers due in at the High Court of the Republic of Singapore by 3pm that day.
Up for grabs are the 4,100-dwt sisterships Brightoil 319 (built 2014), Brightoil 326 (built 2015) and Brightoil 329 (built 2017).
Built by Rizhao Kingda Shipbuilding Heavy Industries Co in China, the vessels are in generally good condition according to a court appointed survey.
The trio is classed by China Classification Society. The Brightoil 319’s class certificates expired at the end of last month, while those for the Brightoil 326 and Brightoil 329 remain valid until September 2020 and January 2021, respectively.
The ships were arrested in November last year, along with three other 7,000-dwt Brightoil bunker tankers by mortgage holder Toyota Tsusho Corp, which filed claims against them totalling nearly $21.1m. Other creditors subsequently filed claims against the vessels.
The larger bunker tankers are expected to go under the hammer in the near future.
A fourth bunker tanker, Charm Starlight Ltd’s 6,500-dwt Lai Bao, will be joining the Brightoil vessels on the auction block that same week, with offers due in at the court by 3pm on 12 September.
Last operated by Sanyang Marine of Singapore, the Lai Bao was arrested in April this year.
Court-appointed surveyors were less complimentary about the condition of the Zhejiang Huaxia-built Lai Bao. They said that while the ship was in a generally satisfactory condition, an auxiliary engine required repairs and the very basic crew accommodation needed a very good clean.
The auction of these four bunker tankers will be watched with great interest by players in the Asian bunker tanker sector.
The glut of such vessels that have come under the hammer in Singapore over the past two years have proven difficult sell, with most requiring several auction attempts before they are sold at fire-sale prices.
Industry observers attribute this mostly to uncertainty over how the upcoming IMO 2020 sulphur cap will affect the industry, with operators playing a wait-and-see game.
The many ships available at auction or on secondhand sales list also prompted interested operators to give low-ball offers on tonnage that while considered nice to acquire, were not immediately needed.
However, with the IMO 2020 deadline a mere four months away, a clearer picture of the demand for vessels should be emerging.
That, combined with lower supply caused by vessels heading to yards for tank cleaning in preparation for IMO 2020, and increased demand for services from vessels taking on bunkers in Singapore rather than the Middle East, is expected to have a more positive impact on the upcoming auctions.
While three VLCCs and an aframax tanker belonging to Brightoil were successfully sold at auctions in Singapore, South Korea and Hong Kong in May and June, creditors are still pushing for the sale of the company’s remaining two VLCCs and three aframax tankers.
Today, the company’s 320,000-dwt Brightoil Gem (built 2013) and Brightoil Galaxy (built 2012) remain under arrest arrested in China and Hong Kong, while its three aframax tankers are under arrest also in Hong Kong.
There have been no indications of potential auction sales so far from the authorities that arrested these ships.
