A key lieutenant of John Fredriksen has rejected the idea of a merger of Avance Gas, a company that the Norwegian shipping magnate controls, with BW LPG.

A few weeks ago, BW LPG announced it had purchased 5.9m Avance shares, representing a 9.14% stake in the Fredriksen-dominated VLGC company.

The BW Group spin-off's chief executive, Anders Onarheim, insisted that the share buy was purely a financial investment but added that he would welcome talks with Fredriksen.