Major oil trader Vitol is reportedly shaking off yet another pair of tankers, adding to a string of sale-and-purchase deals that has made the company a serial seller.
But broker reports linking the sales to Peter Georgiopoulos-led company United Overseas Group (UOG) appear to be wide of the mark.
Several brokers in Europe and the US reported this month that Vitol has agreed to shed the 51,400-dwt Elandra Fjord and Elandra Baltic (both built 2011) for about $50m in total.
Some of these brokers in the US identified UOG as the buyer, but a source close to the company told TradeWinds that those reports were wrong.
Vitol managers declined to comment to TradeWinds, saying the company is not in the habit of discussing individual transactions.
China’s ICBC Financial Leasing may be involved in some of those deals. It remains unclear whether the ships have all been sold to third parties or whether Vitol had a purchase option on them.
One of the tankers involved is the 299,000-dwt Elandra Everest (built 2020), which is probably the VLCC that Tsakos Energy Navigation announced it was buying earlier this year without identifying the ship.
The others are the 116,000-dwt aframax crude tanker Elandra Angel (built 2009), the 51,000-dwt MR product carriers Elandra Blu and Elandra Corallo (both built 2008), and the 115,700-dwt LR2s Elandra Sound and Elandra Bay (both built 2018).
Vitol’s rationale
None of the deals has been confirmed so far, but market players have already been speculating about Vitol’s rationale to sell.
The most straightforward explanation is that Vitol is cashing in on tankers it bought very cheaply as it focuses on its trading activities.
“They are mostly selling non-core assets that do not fit in their trading platform,” one industry player told TradeWinds. “Some of these vessels are taken back on time charters.”
The war in Ukraine and sanctions against Russia may also be playing a role.
“Vitol are long on ships and clearly have fewer cargoes by comparison to some months ago,” another shipping player said.
“Vitol was one of the most important Russian cargo players until the latest set of sanctions were introduced, and have since seen their trade decimated.”
In April, the trader said volumes of handled Russian oil “will diminish significantly in the second quarter as current term contractual obligations decline” and that it planned to “retreat from the Russian market”.
Vitol said it expected to stop transporting Russian crude by the end of the year.
Glencore, another big trader, may be in selling mode as well.
US-based brokers said the 105,300-dwt aframax Alpine Amalia (built 2010) is being offloaded for $36m.
S&P Global Market Intelligence lists the ship under the ownership of Glencore’s shipping arm, ST Shipping.
Glencore declined to comment.
Earlier this month, the 74,400-dwt Alpine Penelope (built 2008) — a ship listed as owned by OceanGold Tankers, a Greek company that is also the Alpine Amalia’s technical manager — was reported sold to Turkish buyers for $21m.
