Kuwait Oil Tanker Co is to order five very large crude carriers from South Korea’s Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering.
The total order costs $556m and a $111m outlay for a VLCC is comfortably ahead of the present quoted brokers’ prices for such ships, which Clarksons has at $90m and Fearnleys at $99m.
In mid-2008, KOTC paid nearly $177m apiece for a four-ship VLCC order at DSME, setting a record price at the time.
KOTC is now to add nine new vessels in its third phase of fleet modernisation, reports Kuwait-based newspaper Al-Anba.
State-owned Kuwait Petroleum signed off the DSME deal on Wednesday.
According to Clarksons KOTC has eight VLCCs in the water, half of which were built at DSME. It also has two products tankers on order at the same yard.
DSME is aiming to secure fresh orders worth $11bn this year, of which up to 80% are expected to come from the offshore sector.