Bunkering start-up TFG Marine is deploying a former Ocean Tankers product tanker to boost its new UK fuel supply operation.
The company, set up by Trafigura and John Fredriksen shipowning companies Frontline and Golden Ocean, is starting operations in the UK port of Falmouth this month.
TFG said on 20 January that it would initially use two chartered tankers.
A spokeswoman told TradeWinds that these are the Rix Shipping-owned, 1,900-dwt Lizrix (built 2008), which is is already in Falmouth, and the MM Marine-owned, 4,600-dwt Naxos II (built 2009), which is currently operating in the Shetland Islands north of Scotland.
Third ship coming
The spokeswoman added that an additional vessel is now en route from Singapore to the UK to increase capacity.
The 16,600-dwt Centaurus (ex-Ocean Success, built 2012) was in the fleet of Singapore's Ocean Tankers, which is part of Hin Leong Trading-linked Xihe Group.
Oil trader Hin Leong collapsed last year and a slew of tankers have been put under the hammer by receiver KPMG, which is acting for Standard Chartered Bank.
TradeWinds reported in September 2020 that KPMG had attempted to sell the Ocean Success and a sistership.
Potential buyers had until 2 October to submit bids. However, the vessels look to have remained unsold ever since.
VesselsValue lists the tanker as having been sold in November to unknown Cetus Maritime, but Equasis has not registered a change of ownership.
The valuation platform assesses the ship to be worth $9m.
As for further expansion, the spokeswoman said: "We intend to grow this set-up, and with volume comes the need for further barges."
Geneva-based TFG Marine said Trafigura had signed a deal with Falmouth Petroleum, an affiliate of World Fuel Services, to secure fuel capacity at the terminal.
Falmouth, in the south-western UK county of Cornwall, is strategically located at the entrance to northern Europe’s Sulphur Emission Control Area.
The agreement will allow TFG to access 0.5% very low-sulphur fuel oil and 0.1% low-sulphur gas oil, as well as high-sulphur fuel oil for ships with scrubbers.
