Four elderly VLCCs have been reported sold for recycling on the Indian subcontinent.
Tanker sources believe the deals do not suggest a wider VLCC purge of tonnage as shipowners operating in the open markets are still resistant to demolition sales.
The recent histories of the 300,000-dwt tankers Hapon (built 1996), Peron (built 1997) and Penny H (built 1996), as well as the 291,000-dwt Spirit (built 1998), tick all the boxes for vessels engaged in sanctions-busting trades.
They are vintage vessels that in a short space of time passed through the hands of a variety of unknown, under-the-radar owners who have operated them at the fringes of the tanker market in trades that have been difficult to trace.
The Penny H was reportedly sold for $600 per ldt. Pricing for deals involving the Hapon, Peron and Spirit were unknown in the market as of Friday.
Only five VLCCs have been scrapped so far this year, according to Gibson Shipbrokers.
The vessels sold this week had respectable careers with their first owners. The 300,000-dwt trio were with Bahri, while the Spirit was owned by Nicholas G Moundreas Shipping. But their more recent pasts have been nomadic and opaque as they passed through a variety of small, short-lived owners, managers and operators.
The Hapon and Peron have each had two names, two owners and three operators since leaving Bahri. IHS Markit lists them as being the only ships of Farree Co of China.
A person who answered a call to Farree’s listed phone number claimed to have no knowledge of the company, which has never been accused of breaking any sanctions regulations
Sanctioned ships
The same cannot be said of the other ships
The Penny H, after being sold by Bahri at the end of 2018, became the Wu Xian of a Marshall Islands-registered entity called Cobb Maritime. After passing in quick succession across the registries of Palau, Panama and Sao Tome & Principe, the tanker was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac), which claimed Iranian interests were behind its ownership.
Immediately afterwards the ship was renamed Penny H and hoisted the Tanzanian flag under Indian management.
The ship again came under scrutiny in March when the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency (MMEA) detained the vessel for operating without insurance.
Tanzanian authorities said the Penny H was not on its register and was falsely flying its flag.
It is unclear how the ship was released from detention. MarineTraffic data shows it departed Malaysian waters in June. It has not broadcast an AIS signal since then.
The Spirit, after being sold by Moundreas in 2018, sailed as the Tian Ma Zou of China’s Kunlun Shipping. Ofac sanctioned Kunlun in 2019 for its involvement with Iranian cargoes, although its ships were not sanctioned. The Tian Ma Zou was renamed as Silvana III and passed through the hands of several more obscure owners and operators.
The ship was renamed Spirit in August, when its technical management was transferred to Silver Star Ship Management, a United Arab Emirates-based company that specialises in scrap delivery voyages.
It is currently heading for Pakistan.
