Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) has struck a deal with BP Oil Shipping Company, USA, to purchase a laid-up suezmax tanker.
The Tampa-based company has picked up the 2004 NASSCO-built Alaskan Frontier, a sister vessel to three other Alaskan Class tankers operated by its arm, Alaskan Tanker Company.
, a sister vessel to three other Alaskan Class tankers operated by its arm, Alaskan Tanker Company. “The purchase of the Alaskan Frontier brings all four Alaskan-class crude oil tankers under OSG’s ownership at a time when the prospect for expanded crude oil production in Alaska offers great promise for continued and increasing demand for ships of her type,” said Sam Norton, president and CEO of OSG.
OSG said the deal should close in November and plans to invest and reactivate the 193,100 dwt ship, which has been in cold layup in Malaysia since 2019, by the fourth quarter of 2024.
The reactivation work will include methanol-ready engine upgrades, a ballast water treatment system installation and other improvements, the company noted.
“The total capital commitment for the project, including the purchase price of the vessel, is approximately $50m,” Norton added.
The New York-listed OSG lists 21 ships in its fleet, including suezmaxes, conventional and lightering articulated tug barges, shuttle and conventional MR tankers, and non-Jones Act MR tankers participating in the US Tanker Security Program.
