Tsakos Energy said to sell aframax in fleet renewal bid amid rebounding prices

Tsakos Energy Navigation has been linked to the sale of one of its oldest aframax tankers as values claw back lost ground.

A US shipbroking house and a VesselsValue deals database said New York-listed TEN has sold the 105,400-dwt Nippon Princess (built 2008) to Chinese buyers.

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The broker said the ship changed hands for $38m, while the valuation platform put the price tag at $41.8m.

At either price, TEN is benefiting from rebounding values for aframaxes of this vintage.

VesselsValue estimates that the Nippon Princess, which was built at Japan’s Sumitomo Heavy Industries and has no scrubber installed, is worth $39.8m in an open-market transaction.

That is higher than the $36m it was estimated to be worth in October after values dipped. The ship’s value reached a peak of $40.5m last July, which was the highest level since 2015.

The Nippon Princess was scheduled to come off time charter last month. It had been operated by charterer ExxonMobil, according to S&P Global.

A TEN executive could not be immediately reached for confirmation of the deal.

A sale of the aframax appears to be in line with the Nikolas Tsakos-led company’s efforts to reduce its fleet’s age profile by selling the older tankers it describes as its “first generation” ships and taking delivery of dual-fuel replacements.

“The vessel sale comes following the acquisition of several modern secondhand vessels and newbuildings, and is a natural part of ongoing fleet renewal, in our view,” Fearnley Securities analysts said on Monday.

The company sold a sibling aframax, the 105,400-dwt Izumo Princess, in April for $37m. The ship, renamed Thorin, emerged in the fleet of Azeri-registered Marine Guardian Shipmanagement.

More recently, TradeWinds reported that the company sold the 164,600-dwt suezmax tanker Euronike (built 2005) for $40.5m, its 11th sale since the beginning of 2023.

In the same time frame, TEN has taken delivery of six dual-fuel LR product tankers from shipyards in China and South Korea. The aframax-size tankers can run on LNG and conventional fuel oil.

VesselsValue estimates that the company’s fleet of 59 vessels and seven newbuildings is worth $4.34bn.