A veteran VLCC has changed hands for the fourth time since 2020 as asset values for older tankers declined further.
Brokers reported that bids had been invited earlier in November for the 281,000-dwt Tricia II (built 2000).
The ship has now gone for $20.9m to an unknown buyer.
VesselsValue assesses it as worth $24.9m, down from nearly $33m a year ago.
UK shipbroker Clarksons lists the vessel as having had “frequent flag changes” and “frequent name changes”.
The insurer is not known.
The Comoros-flagged tanker was switched from the Panama register last year following a series of sales.
There was a period in 2022 when its flag was not known and before that it was registered in St Kitts & Nevis, having moved from Panama once more.
The VLCC began life as Tenyo and was under the control of NYK companies until 2020 when it went to unknown Greek interests as Kyoto.
Following the outbreak of the Ukraine war, it was sold to undisclosed interests in November 2020 as Tiburtina.
The Equasis database also lists the name Arabela being used in 2022.
The current registered owner, Tricia Navigation of the Marshall Islands, acquired the ship and renamed it in December 2023.
The company could not be contacted for comment.
The Tricia II was detained in China in September after port state control inspectors found 11 faults. Grounds for detention were deficiencies with its alarms, ventilation and launching arrangements for lifeboats, as well as water and weathertight conditions.
Clarksons Securities said on Monday that tanker and dry bulk ship values are continuing to soften.
Tanker prices fell by $1m per vessel last week, with five-year-old MRs losing nearly 10% of their value in the past two months, the investment bank added.
Mainstream owners and analysts believe more elderly vessels will be scrapped as asset values fall in what they characterise as a saturated shadow fleet market.
There have been no comparable sales of VLCC tonnage this old in recent weeks.
Earlier this month, Chinese buyers appeared to have won the bidding war for a Japanese-owned VLCC.
The unspecified buyers were said to have purchased the 311,110-dwt Taiga (built 2007) from Meiji Shipping for between $44m and $45m, according to broker reports.
One British broker said the ship was being circulated for sale for between $41m and $42m, with Chinese and Greek buyers in pursuit.
But a deal looks to have been concluded for a much higher price. Rumblings in the market put the value first at $43.5m and then closer to $45m.
The vessel’s registered owner, Panama-registered Esteem Maritime, lists Meiji Shipping’s Tokyo office as its forwarding address, and Meiji’s MMS Co is listed as the technical manager.
NYK is listed as the commercial controller.
