Pantheon Sells 2011-Built VLCC Sea Leopard for $135m, Above Newbuild Price
Clarksons put a new VLCC at around $131m at the start of September
Anna Angelicoussis-led Pantheon Tankers is reported by brokers to have sold the 2011-built SEA LEOPARD for $135m, one of the largest VLCC secondhand deals reported last week. The 314,000 dwt DSME-built tanker has been committed to undisclosed buyers. The company has not announced the transaction and still shows the ship on its online fleet list.
The price is the point. Clarksons put the benchmark cost of a new VLCC at around $131m at the start of September, so a 15-year-old hull is fetching more than the headline price of contracting a replacement for delivery several years from now. Signal Ocean has documented the same inversion across the age curve: at the end of August, five-year-old VLCCs were assessed at $151.1m against $130.2m for a newbuilding, while values for 15-year-old ships had risen 61 percent year on year.
The speed of the repricing shows in comparable deals. Frontline agreed in July to sell two 2017-built VLCCs for $270m, the same $135m a ship that Pantheon is now reported to have achieved for a vessel six years older. The Sea Leopard is also a long step up from Pantheon's own previous disposal: the company sold its then-oldest VLCC, the 2009-built, 318,441 dwt Caesar, for about $70m in February, after which the 2011-built ship became the oldest VLCC in its operating fleet.
Broker reports point to a string of similar transactions this week. The 2010-built Kallista has been reported sold for $132m, the same-aged Ashoka fetched around $130m, and the 2009-built Nissos Heraclea has been placed at around $112m.
The asset surge rests on an earnings backdrop that has intensified with the latest disruption to Middle East oil flows. Signal was already assessing Middle East Gulf to Singapore VLCC earnings at around $702,000 a day in early September. Since then the shutdown of Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline has pushed more barrels back towards Gulf export routes at the same time as security concerns have constrained the tankers available to lift them. S&P Global reported last week that VLCCs have largely stopped using the Bab el-Mandeb amid the latest Houthi advances and attacks on Saudi infrastructure, which adds voyage length and tightens ship availability further.
Pantheon is selling into that market while renewing at the other end of the curve. The Greek owner ordered four 306,000 dwt VLCCs at Hengli Heavy Industry in February for delivery in 2028 and 2029, adding to two 307,000 dwt ships already booked at Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co for 2027. The group has also been active further down the tanker spectrum this year, adding LNG dual-fuel suezmaxes and returning to MR newbuildings in China.
This story is part of the Maritime Briefing of 22 September 2026.
