Athens: A VLCC owned by New York-listed Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN) has won a six-month storage contact from Petrobras.
The timecharter for the 301,200-dwt Millennium (built 1998) is expected to earn the company more than $10m. A day rate was not disclosed by the company but brokers put it at $55,000 daily.
“Accretive transactions like the one announced today is proof of the strong tanker market currently in evidence due to the drop in oil prices, which on its own merit offers TEN significant benefits on two fronts,” George Saroglou, COO of TEN said in a statement. “On the first, it allows for strong spot rates, which our flexible and diversified fleet takes advantage of; while on the second, it materially reduces voyage expenses.”
Around 5% of the global VLCC fleet has been currently hired for floating storage, which is around 37 vessels (approximately 11.3m dwt), according to US-based shipbroker McQuilling.
This spate of storage fixtures has helped boost rates in the VLCC market. One-year timecharters have this week been fixing at a daily rate of around $42,000, which remains firm but is a slight reduction on daily rates of nearly $50,000 seen at the end of January.
