Athens-based shipowner Atlas Maritime has clinched benchmark long-term employment for an aframax it took delivery of last year.
Major charterer Phillips 66 has booked the 115,100-dwt Freeport Star (built 2023) for three years at $42,500 per day, according to market sources.
Historical data on the Clarksons and VesselsValue databases shows no other aframax crude carrier having been fixed at this level for such a period.
The closest was achieved by two aframaxes booked over the past few weeks by Suncor Energy.
The Canadian energy company is said to have fixed the Eastern Pacific-managed, 114,200-dwt Iberian Sea (built 2018) and Samos Steamship’s 111,900-dwt Calypso (built 2021) for three years, at $41,000 per day and $41,500 per day, respectively.
According to Maria Bertzeletou, an analyst with Signal Ocean Group, aframax tonne-days and tonne-miles surged from mid-January.
The Freeport Star is just coming out of a one-year charter with BP that was earning Atlas $50,000 per day.
The benchmark set by the Freeport Star highlights the rude health of the crude market and the higher earnings modern vessels can achieve in it.
Built at DH Shipbuilding in South Korea, the scrubber-fitted, dual-fuel LNG-ready ship is fitted with an array of state-of-the-art specifications and environmental features that ensure superior operational efficiency in terms of speed and fuel consumption.
Another factor that led to the deal is the longstanding cooperation between Atlas and Phillips 66.
TradeWinds has repeatedly reported since at least 2015 about the two companies arranging long-term chartering deals with each other.
The bumper deal also vindicates Atlas’ strategy to invest massively in newbuildings.
The Leon Patitsas-led company and partners have spent $1.3bn on ordering 17 tankers and car carriers in recent years. The company began its newbuilding programme in late 2020 — in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic when newbuilding prices were at multi-year lows.
After offloading several older tankers, the Freeport Star is the only vessel that Atlas has on the water.
After newbuilding deliveries and resales, the company has 14 dual-fuel, LNG-ready ships under construction — six 157,000-dwt suezmaxes and four 114,900-dwt LR2s at DH Shipbuilding, as well as four 7,000-ceu dual-fuel car carriers at CIMC Raffles in China.
Atlas has already stated on its website that ExxonMobil and Phillips 66 have expressed interest in employing some of its newbuildings on period employment.
