With new VLCCs ordered today won’t be delivering until 2029, most of the ships that will carry the world’s oil this decade are already trading.

 With a 15-year-old tanker now worth more than a new one, owners have demolished their own favourite argument against retrofitting older ships, according to BAR Technologies CEO John Cooper.

Poten & Partners values a VLCC available for prompt delivery at around $235 million, compared with approximately $130 million for a newbuilding ordered today and due for delivery in 2029. Even a 15-year-old VLCC could command around $140 million, according to the shipbroker.

“The argument against retrofitting older ships has always been that it’s not worth spending money on a vessel near the end of its life,” said Cooper. “Well, the market has just put a $140 million price on a 15-year-old tanker. You can’t value a ship like that and then tell me it’s not worth improving.”

Cooper expects many of those ships, some of which would have been heading for recycling within a few years, to keep trading into the 2030s. Every extra year is another year of fuel bills, and on a deep-sea ship, wind is, he says, “the only propulsion energy that’s free at source”.

There is a regulatory argument, too. WindWings can reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, potentially improving a vessel’s Carbon Intensity Indicator (CII) rating and helping owners maintain its commercial viability as efficiency requirements tighten. For owners extending the working lives of older ships rather than replacing them, wind propulsion offers a way to improve operational performance while reducing fuel costs, strengthening the case for life extension, not just fuel savings.

BAR has modelled what that means for a VLCC on a typical USA to JPN trade. A typical 5x 37.5m WindWings® installation would save around 2670 tonnes of fuel a year (at a utilisation rate of 80%), worth $2.27m ($850/t assuming VLSFO usage) in saved fuel costs, paying back in 4 years based on fuel savings alone (without accounting for any carbon-related costs or benefits). [If confirmed: The work can be done during a routine dry-docking.]  

The technology is already working on existing ships. The bulk carriers Pyxis Ocean and Berge Olympus were both retrofitted with WindWings, and DNV independently recorded up to a 32% cut in main engine energy use on Pyxis Ocean in favourable conditions. Union Maritime has taken delivery of three WindWings-equipped LR2 tankers, with two more due in 2027.

“Shipping has spent ten years telling itself that decarbonisation happens on the order book,” said Cooper. “The order book is full until 2029. The ships that have to burn less fuel this decade are the ones sailing now. “So if the market is comfortable putting $140 million on a 15-year-old tanker, owners should be asking themselves whether it still makes sense not to spend a fraction of that improving the way it runs.”