Ah, Kharg Island, Ras Laffan, Yanbu, Das Island, Al Basrah, Mina Al Ahmadi, Ras Tanura, the list of exotic destinations goes on.....
The reason BP are rebuilding ina big style, is that in the past couple of years, they've decided that the best way to avoid having Third World muppets onboard the ships they've chartered and causing accident is to own the ships themselves and employ their own people.
They've never had a serious pollution incident, but after incidents like the Erika and Prestige in recent years they're tightening up on the tanker side of the business. The Erika incident also showed that although the French Oil Company Elf didn't own the ship or employ the crew, they had chartered it, and so were vilified in the press and in the courts.
So BP have come to the conclusion that the easiest way to make sure their ships are in as good hands as possible is to run them themselves.
Indeed, the average ship age in the fleet is about 2 years old! Since the late 70s the fleet remained pretty bouyant at around 20 ships, this of course until all the newbuilds started arriving.
And although, techincally BP sacked everyone in 1986, it didn't happen in reality. They merely ceased to be employed by BP in London, and switched to being employed bpy BP in Bermuda, with wages paid from the Isle of Man. All terms and conditions remained the same, aside from the loss of a pension to all new joiners.
It was all one big tax fiddle.
Indeed, Shell change the name of their tanker owning arm every few years, as they get some kind of tax break for it!