Daewoo in VLCC quartet deal

The Kuwait Oil Tanker Company (KOTC) has signed a letter of intent with Daewoo Engineering & Construction to build four VLCCs for $700 million. The final contract will be signed on 21 August and delivery is scheduled for end 2011 as part of a fleet renewal plan. KOTC will also be announcing, in mid-September, the winner of a tender to build two tankers for petroleum products at an estimated cost of between $180 million to $200 million.

KOTC also wants to build another nine tankers as the third stage of the fleet renewal by next year. The company already took delivery of nine oil tankers and a service ship, which were built in South Korea, Singapore and Bahrain. The new tankers will be replacing ageing vessels as KOTC plans to have 28 tankers by 2015 and 34 tankers in 2020.

The additional ships complement the world’s seventh-largest oil exporter?s strategy to boost output to four million barrels per day by 2020.