Hundreds of ships are stuck in the Strait of Hormuz – One man’s ships pass through it despite the war

At least 200 cargo ships are stuck in the Strait of Hormuz because of the Iran war. Still, a few oil tankers have managed to get through the strait quietly.

During the war, tankers have also been taken to the strait by a company called Dynacom Tankers Management, owned by a 79-year-old Greek George Prokopiou. He founded the company in 1991.

He has now been highlighted in the German media.

Prokopiou is known worldwide as an influential ship owner. In Germany, he will be remembered from 2022. At that time, Prokopiou organized two liquefied natural gas terminals for Germany (FSRU, Floating Storage and Regasification Unit), when the import of pipeline gas from Russia stopped after Russia attacked Ukraine.

Several tankers through Hormuz

In recent weeks, Prokopiou’s oil tankers have turned off their transponders when passing the Strait of Hormuz.

German media sources estimate that Iran will leave Prokopiou’s ships untouched because the man has exceptionally long and good relations with Iran’s partner country China.

It is clear that tanker personnel are in extreme danger in the midst of war.

of the Wall Street Journal and According to Handelsblatt at least three to five oil tankers of Prokopiou’s company have already passed the Strait of Hormuz during the war weeks.

Relations with Chinese bankers

George Prokopiou has built decades of relationships with Chinese shipbuilders and the country’s bankers. He turned to Chinese shipbuilders in the early 2000s, when other Greek shipping companies were still ordering their ships from Japan and Korea.

Prokopiou, on the other hand, already took experts in the design and construction of supertankers from these countries to China to develop the Chinese shipyard skills.

In the 21st century, Prokopiou has ordered 160 vessels from Chinese shipyards. Chinese banks finance the orders.

Recently, Prokopiou’s companies ordered a total of 16 supertankers from two Chinese shipyards. Supertankers are known in the energy market by the abbreviation VLCC (very large crude carrier).

A supertanker is a very large tanker. They usually transport crude oil on the oceans and are among the largest ships in the world.

Since the ships are huge, it is worth transporting large quantities of oil even over long distances on them. Due to their large draft, supertankers cannot fit in most ports. Therefore, they often have to unload or load their oil in special terminals located in the open sea.

George Prokopiou himself lives and works mostly on his superyacht called Dream. Even among superyachts, it is among the largest in the world. The ship is 106.5 meters long. Its price is estimated at 150 million dollars.

Dream was originally built in Turkey in 1997 as a passenger ship. Prokopiou underwent a ten-year modification to the ship in Greece. The luxury yacht was completed in 2018.

George Prokopiou is one of the richest people in Greece with a fortune of almost five billion euros.

While Prokopiou is doing well in the midst of the Iran war, another Greek maritime legend is being remembered in Germany, who also took advantage of risks and crises to get rich.

Shipowner Aristoteles Onassis in the 1950s, after World War II, ordered half of its tankers from Germany, from Hamburg, Bremen and Kiel shipyards. They even made tankers at that time.

Greek shipping companies still control 25 percent of the world’s oil and gas tanker capacity, even more than 30 percent of oil tankers.

According to German media reports, a few other companies, such as Frontline and Minerva Marine, have also sent their ships very risky through the Strait of Hormuz. They are estimated to make a record in a situation where most logistics companies are now waiting for safer times.