Stena Bulk focuses on South America

The aim of Stena Bulk is to further extend and improve business with the Brazilian oil company Petrobras. “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”, says Ulf G. Ryder, President and CEO 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 just 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 totalling 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 extensive training of Angolan citizens both at sea and in Stena Bulk’s network of office all over the world. A joint project for a new and modern maritime academy in Angola is at the planning stage. The operation and chartering of the SSSP fleet is handled by Stena Bulk’s offices in Houston, London and Singapore.