Maran Tankers Management (MTM), a shipping company privately owned by John Angelicoussis, placed an order today for four new Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs) from Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering.
The ships are all 319,000 ton deadweight and come at an aggregate cost of $400 million. Final deliveries are planned for September 2016.
According to research from Poten & Partners, 20 new VLCCs are scheduled to be delivered from shipyards between now and the end of the year, adding to the roughly 10 which have so far been delivered.
VLCC Trading Fleet & Orderbook, source: Poten
With few ships scheduled to be delivered over the next year, Angelicoussis is hoping that increased crude demand coupled with an incremental phase out of older tonnage will help to tighten the VLCC market which has been hit be unsustainably low rates over the past few years.
Iran’s oil exports slipped modestly in January, but the data points to durability rather than decline. A mature dark fleet ecosystem continues to move crude through opaque networks, with activity increasingly concentrated in Malaysian waters even as U.S. sanctions enforcement expands across new regions.
Tsakos Energy Navigation CEO Dr. Nikos Tsakos says geopolitical turmoil and the rapid expansion of shadow tanker trading have created a severe shortage of high-quality vessels, pushing charter rates to levels rarely seen in the industry. Speaking during a recent investor presentation, Tsakos said nearly a third of the global tanker fleet has been sidelined by sanctions, leaving oil majors scrambling for compliant tonnage and reshaping global energy trade routes.
International Seaways, Inc. (NYSE: INSW) has acquired sole ownership of Tankers International, one of the world’s leading shipping pools, while simultaneously expanding the platform beyond its traditional VLCC focus to...
January 27, 2026
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