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Our Fleet

Our current fleet consists of eighteen shuttle tankers, which are vessels designed to transport crude oil and condensates from offshore oil field installations to onshore terminals and refineries. Our shuttle tankers are equipped with sophisticated loading systems and dynamic positioning systems that allow the vessels to load cargo safely and reliably from oil field installations, even in harsh weather conditions.

We generate revenues by charging customers for the loading, transportation and storage of their crude oil using the vessels in our fleet. We provide these services under time charters and bareboat charters.

Each charter is a contract for the use of a specified vessel for a fixed period at a specified daily rate.

Under time charters, the ship-owner is responsible for providing crewing and other vessel operating services, while the customer is responsible for substantially all the voyage expenses.

Under bareboat charters, the ship-owner is not responsible for providing crewing or other operational services, while the customer is responsible for all vessel operating expenses and voyage expenses.

The rate payable under all our charters is fixed and payable monthly in advance.

Shuttle tankers are often described as “floating pipelines,” because these vessels typically shuttle oil from offshore installations to onshore facilities in much the same way a pipeline would transport oil along the ocean floor. Shuttle tankers can be either purpose-built or converted from existing conventional oil tankers.

The advantages of shuttle tankers as compared to pipelines include:

The use of shuttle tankers is a more flexible option than pipelines for the transportation of oil from the oil field to onshore terminals and provides destination flexibility for the customers;

Shuttle tankers provide a more flexible solution to declining production profiles and abandonment as a pipeline has a fixed capacity, whereas shuttle tanker capacity may be adjusted through reduced frequency of calls or reduced number of vessels serving a field;

Shuttle tanker operators may provide back-up capacity during times when existing transportation infrastructure is closed for maintenance or otherwise unavailable, which would enable uninterrupted production

Shuttle tankers require less significant up-front investment than pipelines; and

Shuttle tankers provide customers the benefit of purchasing unblended crude qualities, whereas pipelines usually provide a blend of different crude qualities as several oilfields may be connected to the same pipeline. A shuttle tanker may load at several fields during one single voyage, but oil from different fields may be kept separated in different compartments onboard.

Shuttle tankers primarily differ from conventional oil tankers based on two significant features. First, shuttle tankers are fitted with position-keeping equipment enabling them to remain in a position without the assistance of tugs or mooring to installations. Second, shuttle tankers are equipped with bow-loading equipment and, in some cases, also fitted with equipment for submerged turret loading.

Conventional oil tankers load from an offshore field installation usually through a taut hawser (mooring line onboard the discharging unit) operation and/or with tug assistance. In certain cases, dedicated shuttle tanker newbuilds are required to service the specific requirements of oil fields and installations. At times, conventional oil tankers can be converted to shuttle tankers after a substantial upgrade and investment in equipment.