Recently, the 1995-built, 298,306-DWT very large crude carrier Titan Venus was sold by Knightsbridge Tankers for $24.5m for conversion into a floating production, storage and offloading facility.
Also the 1999-built, 298,969-DWT Algarve was sold by Euronav this week for $35.9m for FPSO conversion.
Industry players believe such deals are to increase, considering the weak earnings in the VLCC arena.
According to Lloyd’s List Intelligence, of the global VLCC fleet of 607, 110 ships were built in the 1990s.