US energy firm Occidental Petroleum has aborted plans to charter a string of VLCCs from prominent Greek, Chinese and New York-listed shipowners, tanker market sources say.

TradeWinds reported on Wednesday that Occidental was understood to be chartering tankers from John Angelicoussis, Onassis company Olympic Shipping & Management, DHT Holdings and China Merchants Energy Shipping firm AMCL.

On Thursday the market was awash with talk Occidental had backed away from the move which would have seen it pay well in advance of $200m to take...