The ultra-large crude carrier Seaways Laura Lynn is back on the move after spending more than two years moored in the same spot off the coast of Oman.
The vessel, one of the two largest supertankers in the world, has been stationary since 2015, shortly after oil prices took a nosedive from more than US$100 per barrel to less than US$30. British private investing firm Vitol chartered the ship in 2015 and had it filled with more than 3M barrels of crude oil banking on a profit when the market recovered.
Vitol declined to comment for this story, confirming only that the group had chartered the 441,000 dwt Seaways Laura Lynn. A Financial Times analysis said most of the vessel’s 3M barrels of crude had been offloaded to smaller vessels for delivery to refineries in need of crude with their supplies restricted by OPEC and Russia’s agreement to cut production by 1.8M barrels per day, citing sources “familiar with the vessel’s operation”.
As the video animation in this story shows, Seaways Laura Lynn transited alongside the 281,000 DWT VLCC Marbella on 2 October and was later approched by smaller vessels on 4 November, including the 150,000 DWT Suzemax tanker Gener8 St Nikolas. The video animations are based on satellite AIS data.
The AIS tracking of Seaways Laura Lynn in the Vessels Value ship valuation database also shows the vessel heading north from its mooring point in Omani waters to a point off the coast of Fujairah in the UAE on 28 October fully laden and returning on 8 November empty.
The vessels that interacted with Seaways Laura Lynn have been on the move, as well. Gener8 St Nikolas left Fujairah fully laden on 6 November and arrived in Yingkou, China on 18 November. Since leaving its anchorage in Sohar, Oman, on 4 October, Marbella has been to Singapore, returning to Fujairah empty on 15 November.
The animation in this story was provided by Genscape’s VesselTracker team.
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Source: Tanker Shipping
