Frontline branches into FPSOs

The world largest oil tanker owner, Frontline Ltd of Norway, is planning to branch into ownership of floating production, storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels according to Frontline Management’s managing director Oscar Spieler.

“We intend to become a large player in this market. We are building something new. This is currently the most exiting project Frontline is working on,” Speiler said. Frontline aims to have the first vessel ready in 2007, and plans to convert single hull tankers into FPSO. A total of five VLCCs and seven Suezmax tankers are being considered for conversion.

Investments for each vessel can vary between $50 and $450 million.