The US Navy’s seaborne logistics unit is closing in on charter deals that could put five clean product tankers into the service of its Hawaii-based Indo-Pacific Command.
Military Sealift Command has been seeking three MR tankers of up to 48,500 dwt for time charters lasting at least 12 months, with options bringing the total agreements to nearly five years, according to the US government’s procurement system.
The navy’s MSC has also been taking bids seeking two small, 8,000-dwt clean product tankers to carry fuel.
Offers were due in mid-November, and it is not yet clear how many shipowners have lobbed bids into the effort.
Contract terms allow for foreign-flag tankers to participate, as long as they switch to a US registration before the start of the deal.
Navy time charters of commercial vessels are often renewable for no more than four years and 11 months, as a result of government contracting restrictions.
Shipbrokers have pointed to at least one recent MR tanker sale that may be aimed at fulfilling MSC’s needs.
All the contracts in the procurement effort are intended for the Indo-Pacific Command, whose theatre of operations includes China, the Korean Peninsula and Taiwan. The command integrates efforts of the US Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and more recently Space Force in a region that has been an area of strategic focus for Washington.
MSC said in August that it operates 50 ships in the Indo-Pacific theatre.
Elsewhere, a US Department of Defense contracts database shows that American Petroleum Tankers, the Jones Act shipping arm of Kinder Morgan, has scored a deal with MSC that will employ its 48,600-dwt product and chemical carrier Evergreen State (built 2010) for at least 12 months.
The initial contract period for the MR tanker will bring American Petroleum nearly $25.4m in gross revenue, or the equivalent of $69,500 per day.
But the deal includes extension options for up to nearly five years that bring the potential contract value to $132m.
The ship, which qualifies for the Jones Act cabotage trade, is expected to operate on the east coast of the US but the contract award said it could carry out work worldwide.
While MSC sought the tanker through the government’s competitive procurement process, the navy unit received only one bid in a process that began with a 12 July solicitation.
But the deal is effectively a renewal of American Petroleum’s existing contract with the navy unit.
