OREANDA-NEWS.  Kuwait Oil Tankers Co.(KOTC) had officially got delivery of two new oil tankers as part of its revamping of its current fleet, a company statement said. The delivery of the tankers "Fintas" and "Burgan" comes to fulfill the third phase inaugurated by the company toward the acquisition of a new fleet of at least nine new tankers, said a press statement by the company.

Al-Fintas is the first of five tankers which the South Korean company Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) is building for KOTC. The new tanker has a capacity of 2.2 million barrels of oil whereas Burgan's capacity is approximately 340,000 barrels, said the statement.

KOTC Chief Executive Officer Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah signed for today's delivery for the Kuwaiti side and S.K. Han for the Korean side. With the addition of the two new tankers, KOTC's total fleet size will be 23. The company indicated in its statement that the revamping process of its fleet had begun with the first phase in 2003 when the average age of a fleet was set at 16 years. With the completion of phases one and two and the current three, that age has been constricted to only six and a half years, said the statement.

With the completion of phase three of the revamping, the total capacity of the entire fleet is likely to stand at about five million tons, including crude oil, LPG, and oil products, indicated the statement. It added that the fourth phase of the revamping is to begin soon and will take into consideration not only technical upgrading but environmental requirements to deal with, such things as global warming and ozone depletion.