Reuters reported that state owned Kuwait Oil Tanker Company will receive its first tanker this year from South Korea's Daewoo Engineering & Construction earlier than planned.

As per report, the first of a fleet of four 318,000 tonne tankers will be delivered in October, earlier than the 2011 due date after a fall in demand for tankers on the back of the global financial crisis. In August 2008, KOTC signed a deal worth over USD 700 million with Daewoo for the 4 tankers.

The report said that the new addition is part of the second phase of our fleet renewal plan involving the construction of 4 very large crude carriers and 3 oil product carriers. The cost of each tanker, which was initially set at USD 177 million, will be cut by Daewoo due to the decline in demand. It did not state the new cost of the tankers.

(Sourced from Reuters)