Tanker cargo data intelligence specialist ClipperData has tracked the maiden voyage of the VLCC Babylon from loading to partial discharge in the Bahamas.
The 2020-built, 299,700 dwt Babylon is believed to be one of the three VLCCs ordered for a reported US$286M en bloc at Hyundai Samho for Greek owner Kriton Lendoudis’ Evalend Shipping in January 2019.
The first movement of Babylon was reported in June 2020 at the shipyard. ClipperData reports the vessel then loaded 500,000 bbls of gasoil in Singapore on 11 July 2020 and 1.5M bbls of gasoil at the Fujairah lightering zone on 30 July 2020.
Initially declaring for Rotterdam, Babylon then changed course and signalled for Philadelphia, USA.
After more than a month floating offshore the USA, Babylon finally moved and headed to the Bahamas, where it began discharging on 30 October 2020
The recipient vessel in the Bahamas, the 2008-built, 51,400 dwt MR2 chemical and products tanker Aegea, headed to Puerto Rico after the encounter, where it will likely discharge its load.
It is not unusual for a VLCC to load oil products for the first voyage – crude oil cargoes are not readily available in the Far East – but it may also indicate a return to the situation of the first quarter of 2019, when several VLCC newbuildings headed west with oil product cargoes, severely compromising the product tanker market.
The tracking of the VLCC Babylon cargoes was accomplished through ClipperData’s C-Live enhanced map and charting tool.
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