Oman Shipping Company is expanding its current fleet of 41 vessels with five new carriers so as to cater for the rising demand from the Oman’s oil and gas, petrochemical and other industries, including flourishing LNG sector, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the company, Tarik Mohamed Al Junaidi told the Times of Oman.
Al Junaidi specified that the vessels relate to three very large ore carriers (VLOCs), one very large crude carrier (VLCC), all four of 400,000 tons capacity and an LNG carrier. All of them are undergoing various phases of construction.
“Just recently we received the first VLOC, which was chartered to Vale. We are expecting another one by the end of this month and the remaining two by November and December, respectively,” Al Junaidi added.
The new VLCC, which is scheduled for completion and delivery in October 2012 and the LNG vessel, converted from a VLCC, are underway at the Hyundai Heavy Industries shipyard in South Korea, while all VLOCs are under construction at Chinese shipyard, Jiangsu Rongsheng Heavy Industries Group.
Accordingly, Vale will be chartering the remaining three VLOCs as well, for a 20 year long period, their main task being transporting ore from Brazil to Oman for the Sohar pelletising project.
On August 20, China Rongsheng Heavy Industries delivered Oman Shipping’s first 380,000 DWT class VLOC.
The vessel, namely Vale Liwa, is the fourth VLOC delivered by the Group following Vale China, Vale Dongjiakou and Vale Dalian.
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World Maritime News Staff, September 11, 2012; Image: OSC