Greek shipowner Giorgos Vardinogiannis dies at 90

Athens, Greece. Greek shipowner Giorgos Vardinogiannis died on Friday at the age of 90 after a brief hospital stay. His family’s shipping and energy businesses extended to Cyprus, while he led Panathinaikos as president for nearly 21 years.

Maritime career and football leadership

Widely recognised for his leadership of the Athens football club, Vardinogiannis was also known by the nickname “Captain”. His working life began at sea, and he served on the Union of Greek Shipowners board for two terms.

Vardinogiannis was born in 1936 in Episkopi, Rethymno. His parents, Giannis Vardinogiannis and Chrysi Theodoroulaki, had ten children. After training at a Southampton merchant navy college, he worked aboard merchant vessels.

His brothers Nikos and Vardis entered business following service in the Greek navy. Other relatives built careers in politics and shipping.

Family businesses and expansion into Cyprus

Shipping, fuel supplies for vessels and oil refining formed the foundations of the family’s businesses. An early venture, SEKA, was established in 1963 at Kaloi Limenes, in southern Crete, together with Mobil and Aristotle Onassis. It supplied vessels travelling eastern Mediterranean routes. Nikos also established Varnima, whose activities included hotels and shipping.

The family later moved into refining, with Motor Oil opening its Agioi Theodoroi refinery near Corinth in November 1972. According to the company’s historical account, the group’s tanker Gold Star brought the refinery its first crude shipment days afterwards: 130,000 tonnes loaded in the Persian Gulf.

Vardis assumed control of the business following Nikos’s death in July 1973.

The wider family subsequently entered the Cypriot fuel market. Coral, a Motor Oil subsidiary, agreed in November 2016 to buy Lukoil Cyprus. The announced €10 million transaction included 31 petrol stations.

Completion followed in January 2017, when the acquired business became Coral Energy Products Cyprus. Petrol stations carrying the Shell brand started operating in Cyprus during the same year.

The Joanna V voyage

A particularly well-documented episode in Vardinogiannis’s maritime career occurred in 1966. He was captain of the tanker Joanna V, also called Ioanna V, during an international embargo on oil supplies to the white-minority government in Rhodesia.

He sailed towards Beira, in Mozambique, which was then under Portuguese colonial rule. Britain was trying to stop oil passing through the port’s pipeline to landlocked Rhodesia.

The voyage triggered a diplomatic dispute and contributed to Britain’s decision to seek explicit authority from the UN Security Council to intercept shipments.