Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) has entered into agreements with BP Oil Shipping Company USA and BP AMI Leasing to purchase the crude oil carrier vessels operated by Alaska Tanker Company (ATC).
OSG currently owns a 37.5% interest in ATC. As part of the deal, OSG will acquire the remaining 62.5% interest of ATC.
ATC operates a fleet of four US-flagged suezmax tankers to carry all of BP’s Alaska North Slope crude oil.
Upon completion of the transaction, OSG will enter into a bareboat charter of its vessel with ATC, and ATC will in turn enter into back-to-back time charters for each of the vessels with BP Exploration (Alaska) as charterers.
“The agreements reached with BP this week provide a clear commitment to maintaining ATC as BP Alaska’s principal marine transportation partner. ATC’s 20-year track record of safe and environmentally responsible crude oil transportation in the highly sensitive Alaskan trades is an achievement with which OSG has proudly been associated. We are excited to have the opportunity to assume full ownership of ATC and aspire to meet and exceed the high expectations that ATC’s constituents have for maintaining a continuing record of operational excellence,” said Sam Norton, OSG’s president and CEO.
According to Norton, the contracts concluded with BP Alaska provide an aggregate of 14 years of firm time charter commitments, adding increased visibility and stability to OSG’s book of forward revenue streams. Each contract provides the charterer with options to extend the charter period beyond the base contract period, providing the framework for a continuing working partnership for many years to come.
OSG is a major operator of Jones Act tankers and ATBs with a fleet of 21 vessels.
