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Oman Shipping Co scores $180m profit in 2015

Oman Shipping Co scores $180m profit in 2015
Oman Shipping Company (OSC) made net profits of $180m in 2015, and will use them to develop and expand the business, after the oil glut increased the quantity of product requiring transportation.

“Some 60% of the company's tankers are under long-term contracts ranging from 15 to 20 years with large international companies, and reputable local companies,” Tariq Al Junaidi, OSC ceo, was quoted as saying to Oman News Agency in a report in the Times of Oman.

Oman LNG and Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Industries, Oman Trading International, Salalah Methanol Company, Oman Vale Company, and Sohar Aluminium, are all involved, while the company's other tankers are chartered out daily on the spot market.

Al Junaidi said average OSC daily charter rates had increased from around $18,000 in 2013 to $55,000 in 2015.

Last year, OSC signed an agreement with Shell International Trading and Shipping to lease vessels to it to for 10 years to transport oil products.

To date, five of a total of 10 vessels being built have been chartered out to Shell, while the rest will enter service at the end of the year, Al Junaidi was quoted as saying.

OSC owns most of its 47 vessels and charters in additional tonnage to meet market demand. It expects to add five vessels to the fleet this year. It typically finances tanker purchases using a debt-to-equity ratio of 70-30 and employs 230 people, 85% of them Omanis.

RS Platou said in a 2015 newsletter that OSC had ordered an additional four 74,000 dwt tankers from STX Shipbuilding in Korea for delivery in 2017 for an undisclosed sum.

State-run OSC has only made a loss in two years since it was set up in 2003, he said. It is owned by the Oman Ministry of Finance (80%) and Oman Oil Company (20%).

Launched with the acquisition of six LNG vessels, OSC has since diversified into the crude oil, chemical, LPG, dry bulk, container and general cargo markets.