Shipping brokerage reports indicate that Pantheon Tankers, a Greek shipping company led by Anna Angelicoussis, has once again profited from the booming secondhand Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) market. The company sold the 15-year-old VLCC “Sea Leopard” to an unnamed buyer for $135 million (approximately 900 million yuan), reportedly one of the largest secondhand VLCC transactions last week.
Pantheon Tankers has not yet announced the sale of the vessel; online fleet listings show that the “Sea Leopard” is still listed as for sale. The vessel was built by Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering—the predecessor of Hanwha Ocean—with a deadweight tonnage of 314,000 metric tons. Built in 2011, it is now 15 years old.
According to Clarksons data, the benchmark construction cost for a new VLCC stood at approximately $131 million in early September, while the “Sea Leopard” was sold for $135 million. This means that the transaction price for a 15-year-old secondhand VLCC was higher than the construction cost of a new VLCC scheduled for delivery several years later.
Statistics from Signal Ocean show that this price inversion phenomenon is evident across VLCCs of different ages. At the end of August, a 5-year-old VLCC was valued at $151.1 million, while a new VLCC was valued at only $130.2 million during the same period; meanwhile, the market valuation of a 15-year-old VLCC rose by 61% year-over-year.
The price inversion is even more pronounced when compared to a vessel sale by another tanker owner. In July 2026, Frontline sold two VLCCs built in 2017 for $270 million. The sale price per vessel was $135 million—matching that of the “Sea Leopard”—yet the latter was six years older; this implies that a 15-year-old VLCC commanded a price comparable to that of a 9-year-old VLCC.
Compared to Pantheon Tankers’ previous ship sale, the “Sea Leopard” also achieved a significant premium.
In February 2026, Pantheon Tankers sold the “Caesar,” the oldest VLCC in its fleet at the time with a deadweight tonnage of 318,441 tons, for approximately $70 million. Following the completion of that transaction, the “Sea Leopard,” built in 2011, became the oldest VLCC in the owner’s fleet.
While divesting older vessels, Pantheon Tankers is simultaneously modernizing its tanker fleet. Newbuild projects include: two VLCCs from Dalian Shipbuilding, two LNG dual-fuel Suezmax tankers from Yangzhou COSCO Shipping Heavy Industry, and one Suezmax tanker from HD Hyundai Heavy Industries.