Euronav NV (NYSE:EURN) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Hugo De Stoop: Yes. Depending on where you build your vessels, It’s, I would say, a minimum of 5 tons up to 12 ton improvement. And obviously, because in our industry, we talk about TCE and the TC takes into account the consumption the improvement in the TCE is just a multiplier of the number of tons that you save per day times the price of the fuel at that time. So at the moment, I would say 5 tons, it’s — we’re probably 600, I suppose, $600. So it’s $3,000. If it’s 10 tons and obviously, it’s a lot more if it’s 12 to then you make the math yourself. Then there is — in addition to that, on the modern versus, certainly, the model vessels that we’ll take at Euronav, we have also invested quite a lot on the digitalization platform that allows us to improve the voyage, I would say, the bone optimization, which takes into account a number of big data, such as the weather, the current, the temperature of the sea.

I mean, all those little aspects have an impact on the consumption. And in the past, we could not take all of them into account because we didn’t have the technology. Now we have it and we continue to develop it. So that’s an addition. The good news is when it works on the super modern chips, then we can also apply that same technology on the older ships, so we can also improve the consumption of all the ships, thanks to that and maybe other hardware equipment that we are constantly testing.

Chris Robertson: Got it. Super helpful. Thank you very much. I’ll turn it over.

Operator: Our next question comes from Chris Tsung from Webber Research & Advisory.

Chris Tsung: Good afternoon. Thank you for sharing the analogy about American wetting, it was very helpful. I just wanted to make sure I fully understood it. With regards to the Feb arbitration, that’s the solely on Frontline’s ability to terminate this combination agreement, is that the marriage that you’re using as an analogy?

Hugo De Stoop: I don’t know if it’s that. I think that you look at the contract and you look at what close should continue to exist for the time being, as I’ve said, until there is a judgment on the fundamental right or wrong of terminating the contract and the damages that come with them. So it’s really, as I said, the guy cannot sell the house because if the judge would award the house to the wife a year later, the house is no longer there, there is a new owner in it. So, it’s very — so he says don’t sell the house until you have that outcome.

Chris Tsung: I see.

Hugo De Stoop: Maybe better kind of take that off.

Chris Tsung: All right. Just moving on past the arbitration. On your traffic light, I was just — kind of a win the question that was previously asked, but on your vessel supply, like what would it take for the UI to turn from green a shallow to fully green?