Vietnam’s An Binh Logistics has splashed out $7.1m to buy a 2008-built chemical/product tanker that is to become the second vessel in its fledgling fleet.
The Vung Tao-headquartered company has acquired the 13,300-dwt RF Alice (built 2008), a vessel that has been operating in the fleet of Netherlands-based Tune Tankers. It will be renamed AB Serena upon handover to its new owner, according to online platform VesselsValue.
An Binh Logistics, one of Vietnam's new generation of private shipowners, was launched in December 2020 by former executives of tanker companies Pvtrans, PTSC, and AuLac. The company is developing a fleet of product and chemical tankers with a focus on tonnage of 10,000-dwt to 25,000-dwt that will trade primarily in the international tanker market.
The company’s first ship, the 12,900-dwt product tanker AB Palmoa (built 2007), is operating on charter to a joint venture between Australia’s Triangle Energy and Pilot Energy, who are using it to develop a niche truck-to-tanker export route out of the West Australian port of Geraldton.
The ship has been in recent months been carrying small cargoes of crude oil from Geraldton to refineries in Singapore and Thailand.
The new export route has allowed the continuation of oil production from the Perth basin for small onshore producers who had been threatened with closure when BP's oil refinery in Kwinana discontinued crude refining.
The Triangle Energy and Pilot Energy joint venture operates in the Cliff Head Oil Field.
Their small crude production volumes are transported by truck to a storage tank facility near Geraldton. Once a sufficient amount of crude oil has been accumulated, it is transported to the port by truck for loading onto a tanker, hence the need for a small vessel rather than a large crude carrier.
An Binh acquired the AB Paloma as Sichem Marseille from Team Tankers in November 2021.
The company’s website claims its senior management team have developed long-standing relationships with major oil and chemical entities, shipping companies, trading companies, shipyards and the ship insurance and banking communities.
TradeWinds was unable to reach An Binh for comment on its plans for the AB Serena.
