TSAKOS ENERGY NAVIGATION ANNOUNCES THE DELIVERY AND CHARTER OF AFRAMAX TANKER URAGA PRINCESS
Final delivery of eight-ship series DNA-aframaxes
ATHENS, GREECE – July 8, 2010 - Tsakos Energy Navigation Limited (“TEN” or the “Company”) (NYSE: TNP) today announced the delivery and charter of the 105,000 dwt DNA-aframax tanker Uraga Princess from Sumitomo Heavy Industries in Japan, the final newbuilding in a series of eight ordered in 2004. Upon delivery, the vessel entered a minimum 30-day repositioning voyage with the oil trading arm of a major financial institution.
“We are pleased to welcome the final vessel in a series of eight DNA-aframaxes the first of which was ordered in Sumitomo six years ago. We are grateful for their exceptional and innovative engineering,” said Mr. Nikolas P. Tsakos, President and CEO of TEN. “The DNAaframax class vessels are high specification vessels with enhanced operational versatility and have widened our customer service capabilities. The previous seven vessels have performed excellently and have been attractive assets to the chartering community. We are confident, that the Uraga Princess, built to the same high-standards of its sister vessels, will perform equally well and contribute to our bottom line.”
Mr. Tsakos concluded, “Operating a fleet of modern tankers positions TEN well for the future. We remain optimistic that TEN will benefit from an expected improvement in market dynamics.”
TEN's pro forma fleet consists of 47 vessels of 5.0 million dwt. TEN's operational fleet consists of 45 vessels all of double-hull design of which 22 are ice-class. TEN's remaining newbuilding program includes two suezmax tankers totalling about 316,000 dwt.
TEN’s balanced fleet profile is reflected in 23 crude tankers ranging from VLCCs to aframaxes and 23 product carriers ranging from aframaxes to handysize; complemented by one LNG.
Tsakos Energy Navigation press release
