Bahri inked the orders last week when ceo Eng. Ibrahim Al-Omar, and SH Ka, a Hyundai board member and coo, attended a signing ceremony.
“The first five VLCCs are due for delivery during 2017. These carriers are designed to the latest international technical specifications and are fitted with environment friendly and fuel efficient engines,” a Bahri press release said.
“Bahri is the exclusive provider of VLCC transport services for Saudi Aramco-delivered crude oil sales under a long-term contract of affreightment,” it said.
“The company has recently signed a 10-year agreement with Korea's S-Oil Corporation. Under this agreement, it will transport crude oil cargoes on VLCCs from the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea to Ulsan in South Korea.”
Bahri claims that successful completion of the order will give it the world's largest VLCC fleet. According to currently available public information, the addition of the 10 vessels would increase Bahri’s VLCC fleet to 41 ships.
Nabeel M. Al Binhassan, vp commercial, Bahri Oil Transportation, told the Gulf Ship Finance Forum in Dubai in March that Bahri intended to increase its fleet to 50-plus VLCCs without specifying when the expansion would be completed.
He said the merger of the Vela International Marine and Bahri fleets had given Bahri a total of 31 VLCCs in its portfolio as of the beginning of the year.
"The largest fleet of VLCCs by a publicly traded company belongs to Frontline with 25 VLCCs," US oil analyst Marin Katusa of Casey Research said in a January report. "The largest private-company VLCC fleet belongs to Tankers International with 37 VLCCs."
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