US Marine Management has secured a market-beating charter for a product tanker from the US Navy.
The Department of Defense said that vessel operator Military Sealift Command will fix one of the owner’s ships in Asia for up to five years.
The fixed-price deal is worth $14m over the first year, with “reimbursable elements”.
The base rate equates to $38,356 per day.
The Baltic Exchange assessed MR rates in the Pacific at $18,700 per day on Thursday.
Shipbroker BRS Group quotes one-year charters for scrubber-fitted eco MR2s at $29,500 per day.
The Military Sealift Command contract comes with three one-year option periods, and a fourth 11-month option.
If all these are exercised, the cumulative value of the deal would be $73.3m.
The contract is expected to end in September 2028 at the latest.
The tender called for a US or foreign-flagged tanker with segregated ballast tanks that is capable of carrying a minimum of 38,500 barrels of oil.
The tanker will transport mainly jet fuel, but it has to be able to carry two clean products simultaneously without losing the capacity to carry the established minimum.
The tanker will be reflagged before delivery.
The department said the contract was “competitively procured”, with 12 offers received from shipowners.
VesselsValue assesses US Marine Management’s fleet of five tankers and a ro-ro as worth $162m.
The company’s 50,100-dwt Badlands Trader (built 2016) is already commercially operated by the Military Sealift Command.
The owner has two other MRs: the 53,000-dwt Shenandoah Trader (built 2015) and 48,100-dwt Yosemite Trader (built 2011).
US Marine Management, based in Virginia, is a subsidiary of vessel lessor Maritime Partners after being acquired from AP Moller-Maersk last year.
