Chief executive Nikolas Tsakos has been sharing his thoughts on Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN)’s likely direction in buoyant markets.
The New York-listed company’s management was taking questions during a Capital Link presentation from its Athens office.
Tsakos said the company is always looking at vessels.
He specified aframaxes as having been a very good size of ship for TEN.
And he added: “Suezmaxes have always played a big role.”
The CEO told the call: “We will be looking at those vessels. However, we would prefer those vessels to be built with some sort of dual-fuel arrangement.”
Tsakos reiterated that he will not be buying ships built with existing technology on a speculative basis.
TEN would also like to expand in LNG shipping.
The owner has 57 tankers and two large LNG carriers, with two shuttle tankers and a third LNG ship on order, as well as six LR2s.
Long-term player
“We are a long-term player in the market. We buy, sell and build ships against contracts at any time,” Tsakos said.
“The best time to buy a vessel is when nobody would lend you money or nobody is there to compete with you.”
Tsakos is viewing 2023 positively.
He argued that it is best to seek long-term charter cover in strong markets, giving the example of deciding between an offer to charter out a VLCC at $80,000 per day for six months, or for three years at $60,000 or $65,000.
Tsakos would prefer the latter option: “I believe this is much better value and it will carry us in case the market turns around.”
