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On August 7 ADNOC Logistics and Services announced 11 vessels for $1.3 billion. On August 11 it put its acquisitions and newbuild commitments for the year at approximately $2.3 billion. On August 25 it exercised options on two more LNG carriers for $444 million. Splash247 and Bloomberg both totaled the year at around $2.7 billion, and $747 million of it, the figure most of the coverage has fixed on, is about a quarter of the total.

Read the money the other way and the picture sharpens. In the same six months the company’s shipping segment earned a net profit of $997 million, up 693 percent year on year, on revenue of $2.438 billion.

So the buying is not being funded out of a balance sheet. It is being funded out of the war.

That is not an inference. Captain Abdulkareem Al Masabi, Chief Executive Officer of ADNOC Logistics and Services, said it on the earnings call on August 11, describing the secondhand purchases as investments made “to support ADNOC Group companies, but at the same time, benefiting from these high charter rates that you are seeing in the market.”

Now put the two halves of the year side by side. In January the same company sold the VLCC Leicester, built in 2017, for $111 million, a price its own results release called “significantly above prevailing market levels.” By July it was agreeing to pay about $135 million a hull for VLCCs built in the same year.

Twenty four million dollars a vessel, in seven months, on the same age class, with the same company on both sides of the trade.

📋 In This Issue:

⚖️ The Story:
What the $2.7 billion actually bought, why the disclosed hull count and the broker record do not agree, the vessel it sold at what it called the top and what the company says the buying is for.
📊 By The Numbers:
The commitment, the hulls nobody counted, the cash, the profit, the reversal, the premium and the casualties.
🔍 Why It Matters:
What changes for the VLCC owner, the charterer, the underwriter and the equity investor.
👀 What To Watch:
The five markers that will show whether this is fleet cover or a freight position.
🚨 Gosships Signal:
What it means when the cargo owner becomes the marginal bidder for the tonnage.

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📌 Gosships Data Card

January 2026: ADNOC Logistics and Services completes the sale of the VLCC Leicester, built in 2017 and 90 percent owned, for $111 million against a book value of $83 million, calling the price “significantly above prevailing market levels.” The company books the gain at $27 million in the results release and at $27.2 million on the following quarter’s call (ADNOC L&S full year 2025 results, February 11, 2026; ADNOC L&S Q1 2026 earnings call transcript, May 14, 2026).

July 2026: The company signs memoranda of agreement on six secondhand VLCCs. Its interim accounts value them at $748 million. In the same month it signs shipbuilding contracts for four LNG carriers at $880 million and takes three secondhand very large gas carriers and two more under construction (ADNOC L&S condensed consolidated interim financial information, note 23, August 11, 2026).

July 31, 2026: Reuters reports that ADNOC L&S is linked to the purchase of five Frontline VLCCs for about $590 million, citing three sources familiar with the matter, and says that no vessel has been named and that neither side has confirmed the deal. ADNOC tells the agency it does “not comment on rumours or market speculation” (Reuters via Baird Maritime and PortNews, July 31, 2026).

August 7, 2026: ADNOC L&S announces the package publicly as “USD 1.3 Billion Acquisition of 11 Vessels,” six VLCCs and five very large gas carriers. It names no vessel and gives no price by type (ADNOC L&S press release, August 7, 2026).

August 11, 2026: The company reports shipping segment first half net profit of $997 million, up 693 percent, and puts “total vessel acquisitions and newbuild commitments year-to-date” at “approximately USD 2.3 billion.” Group net profit guidance is raised for the third time this year, to high 110 percent growth. On the same call Al Masabi discloses one fatality and 20 injuries to crew (ADNOC L&S Q2 2026 earnings release, 1H 2026 earnings presentation and H1 2026 earnings call transcript, August 11, 2026).

August 25, 2026: The company exercises options on two further LNG carriers at Jiangnan Shipyard for $444 million, lifting its LNG newbuild program to 20 vessels and taking the running total for the year to around $2.7 billion (Splash247, August 26, 2026; Bloomberg, August 25, 2026; Ship and Bunker, August 28, 2026).

Sources: ADNOC Logistics and Services Q2 2026 earnings release, 1H 2026 earnings presentation, management discussion and analysis, condensed consolidated interim financial information and H1 2026 earnings call transcript, all August 11, 2026; ADNOC L&S press release, August 7, 2026; ADNOC L&S full year 2025 results, February 11, 2026; ADNOC L&S Q1 2026 earnings call transcript, May 14, 2026; Frontline plc second quarter and six months 2026 results, August 28, 2026, and sale announcement, August 4, 2026; Reuters, July 31, 2026; Xclusiv Shipbrokers sale and purchase report, August 3, 2026; VesselsValue via Hellenic Shipping News, August 4, August 11 and August 18, 2026; Riviera Maritime Media via Shipping Herald, August 21, 2026; iMarine, August 22, 2026; Splash247, August 26 and February 10, 2026; BRS via Splash247, February 10, 2026; Bloomberg, August 25, 2026; Ship and Bunker, August 28, 2026.

⚖️ The Story

What The $2.7 Billion Actually Bought

Start with the company’s own capex table, because almost none of the coverage has opened it.

The slide in the first half presentation of August 11 breaks this year’s new commitments into five lines. Six secondhand VLCCs at $747 million. Five very large gas carriers, three secondhand and two resales, at $566 million. Four newbuilding LNG carriers at $910 million, the order placed at Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai on July 10. Three secondhand dry bulk vessels, one Ultramax and two Supramax, at $61 million. Four integrated logistics vessels at $50 million.

Note what that split does to the framing. Crude tankers are $747 million of it. Gas carriers, both very large gas carriers and LNG, take $1.920 billion. This is not a tanker buying spree with some other tonnage attached. It is a gas program with a tanker raid inside it, and the tanker raid is the part the secondhand market has been reading.

Now the correction, and it matters to anyone modeling the cash.

Why Has ADNOC Committed $2.7 Billion To…

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