Reports linking Spring Marine Management of Greece with a move deeper into the aframax tanker segment are believed to be unfounded.

Brokers have suggested it is buying the German owner Hansa Treuhand's 115,000-dwt HS Tosca (built 2004) for $13.5m.

However, sources with knowledge of the Greek shipowner say it is not the buyer.

The HS Tosca would have been the second tanker that the company had added to the fleet this year.