Tsakos presses on with fleet renewal

Greek owner Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN) has confirmed market rumours about the sale of one of its oldest suezmax tankers with additional divestment of ageing tonnage potentially on the horizon as part of the company’s fleet renewal programme.

The New York-listed company said in its quarterly earnings report that a 2009-built unit had been offloaded to undisclosed third-party interests.

The only 2009-built suezmax in TEN’s fleet and the company’s third oldest in this segment was the 158,500 dwt Pentathlon. Some S&P sources suggest the Samsung-built ship has been picked up by UAE-based Grace Energy Shipping for $40.5m.

TEN said the deal would, after payment of outstanding debt, generate free cash of about $30m and capital gains nearing $2.5m, to be booked in the first quarter of this year.

The company, which recently ordered nine shuttle tankers at Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea backed by a $2bn bareboat charter deal with Petrobras’ logistics subsidiary Transpetro, said it is looking to offload more of its older tonnage to make room for new tankers both in the conventional and the specialised segments.

TEN’s diversified fleet consists of a mix of 82 crude tankers, product tankers and LNG carriers, including 21 vessels under construction. The company has nearly 20 ships older than 15 years, with about two-thirds in the products segment, the oldest one being the 2003-built 68,400 dwt LR1 Andes.