WHERE OIL
TRAVELS
FIRST CLASS This year Swedish tanker company Stena Bulk celebrates 30 years of successful business. Peter Mercer looks at its continuing tradition of innovation in tanker operation and design.
86 Industry Europe
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stablished in 1982, originally with a single employee, current president and CEO Ulf G Ryder, Stena Bulk AB is today one of the world’s leading tanker shipping companies with a fleet of some 100 vessels, totalling 9.5 million tonnes deadweight, and offices in Gothenburg (its headquarters), Houston, Rio De Janeiro, Singapore, Athens and Beijing. The company works with some of the world’s largest oil and chemical companies and is an industry leader in the development of new and unconventional vessel designs that increase efficiency and add value for both Stena Bulk itself and its long-term customers. Ulf G Ryder was recruited by Stena in 1982 specifically to build up the company’s tanker and bulk business. Stena was already well-established as an operator of ferries and Ro-Ro carriers on the routes between Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Germany and had begun developing a fleet of offshore maintenance vessels to serve the fast-growing North Sea oil and gas industry. In fact, the timing of the decision to move into the tanker business was not very good since at the time the world tanker market was in poor shape but the up-side was that prices for second-
