Concordia Maritime Finds Work for Stena Provence

Swedish tanker owner Concordia Maritime has signed a contract with an unnamed oil and gas company to charter out the P-MAX tanker Stena Provence.

The contract is for one year, with an option for a further year, and runs from mid-September 2017.

The tanker shipping company said that the 2006-built vessel has previously been used by the same customer for consecutive transportation of refined petroleum products, mainly in the Asia Pacific region.

Furthermore, this is said to be the second charter contract for Concordia Maritime in the past three months, as the same company is said to have chartered in the P-MAX vessel Stena Paris in June.

“Given the challenging market conditions, we are pleased with the level of the contract. But what’s really important here is maintaining a long-term perspective and continuing our partnership with one of the world’s largest oil companies,” says Kim Ullman, CEO of Concordia Maritime.

The securing of the charter deal comes at a period of weakness for transportation of oil and refined petroleum products, however, Concordia Maritime believes several factors are pointing to a better outlook for the sector.

“The world economy is in good shape and global oil consumption is expected to increase by about 1.4 million barrels per day in the coming year. Looking at stock levels of oil around the world, they are now gradually decreasing, primarily as a result of OPEC’s output cuts – which will benefit shipping companies like us in the period ahead.

“On the supply side, order books are low and net growth in new MR vessels is only expected to be about 1-2 percent in 2018. Overall, we expect these factors to lead to a progressively stronger market starting in 2018,” concludes Ullman.