Crowley Government Services has become the latest shipowner to secure a lucrative charter to support US military activities worldwide.
The Florida-based company has secured a potential five-year charter that could eventually be worth close to $100m if all the options are exercised.
Crowley has been awarded an initial 12-month contract for the 65,200-dwt Stena Polaris (built 2010) worth $16.1m.
The ice-classed vessel has been bareboat chartered from Stena-backed Concordia Maritime for the length of the charter. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The DNV-classed P-Max product tanker was built by Brodosplit Shipyard, Croatia.
The vessel, which has been reflagged in the US, will support the US Department of Defense’s worldwide bulk fuel requirements, official documents show.
This contract includes a 12-month base period with three 12-month option periods and one 11-month option period, which if exercised, would bring the cumulative value of the contract to $98.6m.
Crowley is said to have beaten competition from five other owners for the contract, which was competitively procured via the US Federal Business Opportunities website.
Documents seen by TradeWinds show that the US Navy’s Military Sealift Command, in Norfolk Virginia, was the contracting activity.
This is the latest in a series of tanker charters that US commercial shipowners have secured from the US military on generous terms.
In early December 2021, a handysize tanker owned by AP Moller-Maersk’s US Marine Management subsidiary landed itself a lucrative short-term charter contract.
The 38,174-dwt US-flagged tanker Maersk Peary (built 2004) was fixed to the US military for a 75-day charter worth a fixed price of $9.9m.
The work involves the transportation of Defense Logistics Agency-purchased fuel stocks in support of Operation Deep Freeze — the code name for a series of US missions to Antarctica.
