A subsidiary of ExxonMobil has fixed one of Nordic American Tankers’ (NAT) suezmaxes on an 18-month timecharter.
The contract includes a 12-month extension option and was fixed at a daily rate of between $25,000 and $30,000, commencing “in a few days”, NAT said.
The NYSE-listed company expects the charter to generate gross revenue of around $25m if the extension option is exercised.
“At this time, we also change the name of our chartering department from Orion Tankers (which was initially established as a chartering pool with external participants) to NAT Chartering,” said NAT’s chairman & CEO, Herbjørn Hansson (pictured). The department will be run from Oslo and London.
“All the suezmax tankers under our umbrella are now owned by NAT. We have no plans to invite other companies into the chartering arrangements of NAT. NAT Chartering is headed up by Erik Tomstad who is reporting to me,” Hansson said.
NAT’s suezmax fleet stands at 30 vessels, including the four vessels recently acquired from Greece’s Nereus Shipping and two newbuildings to be delivered from South Korea’s Sungdong shipyard in 2016 and 2017.