Kuwait Oil Tanker Co will start building six oil and gas tankers in 2014 and receive nine others as part of a deal with South Korea's Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, state-run news agency KUNA said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.
The new tankers are part of the crude exporter's strategy to modernise its fleet, KUNA quoted Chairman Nabil Bouresli as saying.
In January the Kuwaiti company had signed a $556 million contract with Daewoo for five tankers.
The South Korean shipbuilder announced on 31 January that it contracted a total of five newbuildings, including four VLCCs and one aframax product carrier.
The five newbuildings are to be built at Okpo yard with deliveries by October 2014.
Since its first VLCC newbuilding placement in 1992, KOTC has contracted a total of 16 vessels at Daewoo, including four VLCCs in 2008, two aframax PCs in 2010 and recently penned five vessels.
Meanwhile, in February this year, Hyundai Mipo Dockyard also signed four 46,500-dwt product chemical tankers with KOTC for $250m with delivery scheduled by August 2014.