Onex DMCC linked to five VLCC purchases as supertanker values climb
The Dubai trader's reported buys run from a 2000-built VLCC at $40m to a near-new one at a record $200m
Onex DMCC, the Dubai trading house, has become one of the most active buyers of very large crude carriers, with at least five supertankers now linked to it through broker reports and sales registers. The ships span 26 years of build dates and a fivefold range in price.
The most expensive is the 306,000 dwt Pinios, George Procopiou's near-new VLCC delivered this year by Hengli Heavy Industries, for which Onex paid a record $200m. The ship now trades as Promise.
The 2010-built, 303,000 dwt Ashoka, a product of the Universal yard, fetched a reported $130m. Two 2009-built ships followed: the 310,000 dwt Norns for $112m, and the 314,000 dwt Nissos Heraclea for a similar figure. Nissos Heraclea was sold by Kyklades Maritime, controlled by the Alafouzos family, and has been renamed Argos Explorer.
The oldest is the 2000-built, 308,000 dwt Dennie, reported sold for close to $40m with a drydocking due. She changed hands for around $30m late last year and has been renamed Ennie. Onex has separately emerged as the new owner of a pair of modern aframaxes previously owned by Vitol.
The purchases have come as freight has reached levels not seen before. The Baltic Exchange's benchmark Middle East Gulf to China VLCC rate passed $1m a day for the first time. Ten-year-old VLCCs are now valued above newbuilding prices, and some 15-year-old ships are fetching newbuild-equivalent sums; Pantheon Tankers sold the 2011-built Sea Leopard for $135m.
The logic for a cargo owner is delivery timing rather than age. A newbuilding contract signed today delivers years out, while a ship in the water can lift cargo this month, and at current rates a single voyage can recover a large share of the price of an older hull. That is why the market has been paying a premium for prompt tonnage across every age bracket, including ships with a drydocking already due.
This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 26 September 2026.
