Olympic is understood to have offloaded the 306,600-dwt Olympic Hawk (built 2000) to a Korean investment fund based in Hong Kong.

While the identity of the buyer has left tanker players scratching their heads given Oriental Shipping Investments is not known to the industry, the price has left some open mouthed.

A figure of $34.5m has been placed on the deal, which Clarksons said in its weekly report to show continued value appreciation in the sector.

It