Asian reports cited the company as saying the 65,000-dwt ships have been ordered by Singapore’s Greenland Petroleum Operations (GPO).

The new vessels will be delivered in 2017.

It is the state group's first new order since June, when it contracted two 40,000-dwt products tankers for Chinese Petroleum.

GPO is partially owned by Chinese businessman Cai Wenxing, an executive director at Falcon Energy.