HAMILTON, Bermuda, June 16, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Nordic American Tankers Ltd. (NYSE: NAT) announced that it has entered into a 30 months charter contract with a subsidiary of ExxonMobil (EM) for one of the NAT suezmaxes. The firm period is 18 months with an option of further 12 months. The gross revenue from the contract of 30 months is about $25 million, reflecting a time charter rate between $25,000 and $30,000 per day. The charter is scheduled to commence in a few days. The cash breakeven level of NAT, including all G&A costs and financial items, is now about $11,000 per day per vessel, spread across 30 units.
This type of a solid employment base strengthens NAT and is sustaining our dividend distribution policy. This new contract supplements the contract of affreightment we already have with a subsidiary of EM.
Including the newbuildings to be delivered in August 2016 and in January 2017, from a Korean shipyard, and the four vessels recently acquired, the NAT suezmax fleet now stands at 30 units.
Commented the Chairman & CEO, Herbjørn Hansson: "The expanded cooperation secures increased flexibility and better customer service".
Mr. Hansson commented further: "At this time, we also change the name of our chartering department from Orion Tankers (which was initially established as a chartering pool with external participants) to NAT Chartering. All the suezmax tankers under our umbrella are now owned by NAT. We have no plans to invite other companies into the chartering arrangements of NAT. NAT Chartering is headed up by Erik Tomstad who is reporting to me".
NAT Chartering has been strengthened further with two persons who have relevant experience from London and Oslo. This is an indication that further expansion can be expected. Based on a fleet of 30 vessels, we do not plan to issue new equity.
Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts.
The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "plan," "potential," "will," "may," "should," "expect," "pending" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.
The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management's examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties. Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
Important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand in the tanker market, as a result of changes in OPEC's petroleum production levels and world wide oil consumption and storage, changes in our operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, the market for our vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, vessels breakdowns and instances of off-hires and other important factors described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the prospectus and related prospectus supplement, our Annual Report on Form 20-F, and our reports on Form 6-K.
