Frontline’s Front Altair to Return to Service in 4th Quarter

John Fredriksen’s shipping company Frontline Ltd has revealed that its fire-damaged LR2 tanker Front Altair is scheduled to return to service in the fourth quarter of 2019.

The vessel suffered an explosion and a fire in June 2019 as a result of a suspected attack in the Gulf of Oman.

The company explained that the ship would return to service once it completes repairs, currently ongoing in Dubai.

At the time of the incident there were 23 crew members on board the crude oil tanker. All seafarers were unharmed after being rescued by a cargo vessel.

Frontline was able to deploy emergency responders in a timely manner, who extinguished the fire within hours of the incident and there was no pollution.

The tanker owner provided the Front Altair update as part of its second quarter of 2019 financial report.

For the quarter ended June 30, 2019, Frontline delivered a net income of USD 1.1 million compared with net income of USD 40 million in the previous quarter.

Reported spot average daily time charter equivalent (TCE) for VLCCs, Suezmax tankers and LR2/Aframax tankers in the second quarter were USD 25,600, USD 16,200 and USD 18,100, respectively.

For the third quarter of 2019, the company expects spot TCE of USD 28,000 contracted for 83% of vessel days for VLCCs.

The company has an extensive dry dock program in the third and fourth quarter of 2019 due to scrubber installations that will result in higher dry dock costs and additional off hire.