Singapore’s VE Marine Services is being reported as the buyer of the world’s biggest tanker.
Belgian owner Euronav announced the sale of the 441,600-dwt ULCC Europe (built 2002) to unnamed interests on 17 October.
AIS shows the ship’s new name as SA Europe, a prefix used by VE Marine for other vessels.
VesselsValue lists the buyer as VE Marine's Liberian single-ship company SA Europe Maritime of Liberia.
The price is reported at $42m, with a special survey due.
The ship is now worth just under $44m, according to the valuation platform.
It is debt-free after 18 years under Euronav ownership, and the deal will generate a profit of $34.7m for the seller.
Clarksons lists VE Marine as owning one other vessel, the 300,300-dwt floating storage and offloading unit SA Equatorial (built 1997).
But VesselsValue also lists the 307,000-dwt VLCC SA Capricorn (built 2002) and 298,400-dwt FSO SA Horizon (built 2001) in the fleet.
The SA Capricorn is the former Fos, reported as sold by Cosmoship to unknown Chinese interests last year.
A ship-to-ship operator
The two FSOs are listed as acquired from the liquidated Xihe Group in 2020 and 2021.
VE Marine and Euronav have been contacted for comment.
The Singapore operator has provided ship-to-ship services off Tanjung Pelepas in Malaysia since April 2014.
Euronav had said the vessel would be delivered in this quarter for use as a storage ship.
The Europe, which has a capacity of 3m barrels of crude oil, has been at anchor off Malaysia since May 2020.
The vessel was bought by Euronav from Greece’s Hellespont Steamship in 2004 for $112m.
The last reported charter was a six-month extension signed with trader Glencore in October 2020 during the storage boom.
The Europe is one of only four such ships of this massive size, all constructed in 2002 and 2003.
Euronav retains ownership of the other three.
The 441,600-dwt Oceania (built 2003) has been holding very low sulphur fuel oil for the company’s own use.
The 432,000-dwt FSO Asia and FSO Africa (both built 2002) were converted into FSO vessels.
Euronav bought out partner International Seaways’ 50% holding in the ships this year to take 100% control.
They are on long-term contracts in Qatar.
