Monjasa buys Panamax as floating storage in double tanker acquisition for West Africa

Global oil and shipping group, Monjasa, remains active in the market for second-hand tonnage following the acquisitions of three tankers earlier this year. Today, Monjasa reveals additional ownership of the two tankers, Monjasa Leader (68.589-dwt) and Monjasa Refiner (13,051-dwt) for floating storage and bunker operations in West Africa.

Increasing number of owned vessels

Since 2018, the number of Monjasa-owned vessels has increased from five to 13 to ensure highly specialised operational standards, while at the same time lowering overall operating costs.

To realise the ambition of extended fleet ownership, the Monjasa Group has significantly extended its technical ship management capacity. This has been done through further development of the in-house company, Montec, which today comprises 20+ maritime specialists based in Dubai.

“The Monjasa Leader becomes our largest fleet member and represents our single most important tanker acquisition ever.”

Group Shipping Director, Torben Maigaard Nielsen says:  

“The Monjasa Leader becomes our largest fleet member and represents our single most important tanker acquisition ever. Given the limited opportunities of storing fuel products ashore, our floating storage solution is the backbone of our West Africa marine fuels operations and allows for our supply tankers to frequently go alongside the vessel to load cargo. Providing maritime end-to-end logistics in West Africa is a challenging task, but we are confident that our two new vessels bring the efficiency and flexibility needed.”
 

Delivery and dry docking in Algeciras and Bremerhaven

Monjasa recently took delivery of the two vessels Monjasa Leader (formerly Cabo San Antonio) in Algeciras, Spain and Monjasa Refiner (formerly Saturn) in Bremerhaven, Germany respectively.

Both tankers were then dry docked for renewal surveys, name change and subsequent hull blasting and painting matching the Monjasa fleet design.

Fleet reshuffle and Monjasa Runner farewell

Later this month, Monjasa Leader replaces SKS Dokka (119,456-dwt), which has served Monjasa on time charter for the past three years.   

At the same time, Monjasa has finalised the selling process of the 13,781-dwt oil and chemical tanker, Monjasa Runner, which will be repositioned from West Africa to the Mediterranean Sea for continued operations with her new owners.

Overall, the Middle East & Africa accounts for 27% of Monjasa’s total volume of 6.4m tonnes of bunkers supplied in 2022, while Monjasa’s fleet comprises some 30 tankers and barges deployed worldwide.

For any questions about our West Africa operations, please contact our Dubai office.