Vela International Marine Ltd.’s Virgo Star ordered from Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, entered service June 23 after a naming ceremony at the South Korean shipyard.
The Virgo Star is the second vessel of four very large crude carriers (VLCCs) ordered by Vela which is a subsidiary of Saudi Aramco. Vela received the Antares Star, it’s first VLCC from Daewoo in April.
Mohammad G. Al-Zahrani, Saudi Aramco’s executive director of Safety and Industrial Security, presided over the ceremony.
Among the more than 55 guests were Daewoo Shipbuilding senior executive vice president W.K. Ki; Saud Bukhari, Vela’s Technical and Support Department manager; Majid Al-Sani, Vela’s Tanker Construction manager; and Khalid Alhammad, project site manager.
The Virgo Star is built to the latest shipbuilding rules and regulations and to Vela’s standards of safety, reliability and the environment to ensure the reliable transportation of Saudi Aramco’s crude oil to customers, the company said.
Vela currently owns and operates a modern fleet of  VLCCs, product tankers of various sizes and also serves as charterer for all of Saudi Aramco’s CIF and ex-ship crude oil and product deliveries worldwide.
Vela conducts trade primarily between the Middle East, Europe and the United States’ Gulf Coast. Vela’s owned and chartered product tankers operate exclusively in the Red Sea and Arabian Gulf coastal trade.
