BULL Adds the Lady of Doria as Its Fourth MR Tanker in Four Months
The 2006-built MR2 takes the Indonesian owner's fleet to 13 ships and ends Doria Shipping's time in shipping
Indonesia's Buana Lintas Lautan has added another vintage MR tanker, continuing a buying programme that has run at roughly one ship a month since the summer.
The owner has acquired the 20-year-old Lady of Doria, a 46,000 dwt MR2 built at Naikai Zosen Setoda. It is BULL's fourth MR purchase in as many months, all in a similar age bracket, and takes the fleet to 13 ships as a buying spree that gathered pace in March continues.
The deal also marks the exit from shipping of Bangladesh's Doria Shipping, the seller.
Age is the defining feature of the strategy. Buying oil tankers around the twenty-year mark means accepting a shorter remaining trading life, tighter vetting outcomes and a residual value that converges on scrap, in exchange for an entry price far below the cost of younger tonnage in a firm secondhand market. For an owner scaling a fleet quickly, that trade-off buys carrying capacity now rather than delivery slots later.
BULL has not restricted its appetite to product tankers. Earlier this year it sealed a deal for the 138,000 cu m Seapeak Jupiter, a 2002-built steam-turbine LNG carrier, for $14.9m. The vessel has since been renamed Gas Polaris, a rare case of a vintage steam-turbine gas unit finding a second life rather than going directly to the breakers.
Steam-turbine LNG tonnage has been the clearest example of the discount on offer at the older end of the market. The propulsion is markedly less efficient than the two-stroke and dual-fuel machinery in newer carriers, which has pushed a generation of these ships towards recycling rather than resale, and left the few buyers willing to take them able to name their price.
The pattern across BULL's purchases is consistent: older hulls, prompt availability, and sellers leaving the trade.
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