John Fredriksen (born 10 May 1944) is a Norwegian-born Cypriot oil tanker and shipping billionaire businessman based in London.

In 2010–2011, Frontline owned 9.6 percent of another large tanker company, Overseas Shipholding Group.

[7] Fredriksen was born on 10 May 1944 to a welder and his wife, and grew up in Etterstad, in the eastern half of Oslo.

[citation needed] Frederiksen first got into oil trading in the 1960s in Beirut, Lebanon, before buying his first tankers in the 1970s.

[8] He made his fortune during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s, when his tankers picked up oil at great risk and huge profits.

[15] In 1985, the Norwegian insurance company Gard became suspicious about losses of cargo from Fredriksen's tankers.

A private investigation was initiated, and a system for the use of heavy oil as bunker fuel was revealed.