21-11-02 Big oil companies such as Shell, BP and ExxonMobil are continuing to charter ships of a similar age to the Prestige, according to statistics acquired with the help of a London shipbroker. While Shell and others are keen to trumpet their commitment to the environment, shipping industry experts say their records suggest they are mainly choosing vessels on the basis of price. Older ships are considerably cheaper to hire than modern ones.

A review of tankers hired by big oil companies shows that the big three companies, plus others such as ChevronTexaco of the US, LUKoil of Russia and Repsol of Spain, are all using elderly, single-hulled ships. Shell shows up more than others. For instance, Shell hired the 24-year-old Enalios on November 3 to carry 80,000 tons of oil from the Baltic to Singapore, while on October 23 it chartered the 24-year-old Aptera M to carry a similar cargo to Singapore.
Meanwhile BP on November 8 chartered the 22-year-old North Sea to carry 80,000 tons from Mina al Bakr in Iraq to the Mediterranean.

Shell said that it vetted vessels more than 15 years old under a strict regime. This looked in detail at maintenance standards and factors such as steel corrosion. BP and ExxonMobil also said they chartered tankers only after a rigorous safety process.