Stena Sonangol Suezmax Pool has opened a representation office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Stena Bulk will add two new Suezmax tankers to the pool.
“We are very pleased to be able to expand our collaboration with Petrobras still further as a result of geographical proximity, and we anticipate that a broader network of contacts at the local level will lead to new and interesting business deals with Petrobras. The fact that we will be appointing a Portuguese-speaking pool employee from Sonangol as the local office manager is extra gratifying,” said Ulf G Ryder, president and chief executive officer of Stena Bulk AB.
The tanker Donat, 166,000 tons and built in 2007, will be delivered to Stena Bulk in mid-November, after which she will immediately begin sailing in the Suexmax pool. The vessel has been chartered for two years plus options.
Another Suezmax tanker—the sixth in all—from Nordic American Tankers (NAT) has been added to the pool. The US-listed tanker shipping company NAT recently took delivery of the Nordic Grace, built in 2002. NAT has a further five tankers in the Stena Sonangol Suezmax Pool, all of which are operated commercially by Stena Bulk.
Stena Bulk’s close collaboration with the state-owned Angolan oil company Sonangol is in its fifth year and currently covers a fleet totaling about 15 Suezmax tankers. The pool has good growth potential as a result of increasing Angolan crude oil production capacity, which currently exceeds 2 million barrels/day. This collaboration includes training of Angolan citizens both at sea and in Stena Bulk’s global network of offices. A joint project for a new and modern maritime academy in Angola is in the planning stage. Operation and chartering of the SSSP fleet is handled by Stena Bulk’s offices in Houston TX; London, England; and Singapore.