John Fredriksen is set to splash out on a series of VLCC newbuildings in defiance of current market conditions.
He has told the Financial Times of his audacious plans to invest "hundreds of millions of dollars" in new ships for his latest company Frontline 2012.
The tanker titan hopes to take advantage of low newbuilding prices on offer and ship designs with better fuel consumption.
“We’re looking to build new VLCCs. At today’s bunker prices, we’ll save $10,000 a day. We’ve been offered newbuildings down to $85m, so the risk is at least at less cost,” Fredriksen told the daily British business newspaper.
Fredriksen said that his idea for Frontline 2012 would “seem crazy to most people” when a glut of ships was dragging down the market.
He said the VLCC market will not return to balance until “at least 100 of the 570-strong existing fleet had been scrapped”.
In the FT interview he said he planned to place the orders by “the end of this year” and that the orders would be “substantial”.
Most within the industry had assumed that Frontline 2012 was formed as part of a rescue package for Frontline and that it would also buy ships from struggling competitors.
The initial fleet of Frontline 2012 includes the ten tankers trading that Frontline owned, including six VLCCs and four suezmaxes, as well as orders for five VLCC newbuildings.