Florida-based tanker shipping company Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) has taken delivery of two 50,000 dwt class product and chemical tankers at Hyundai Mipo Dockyard in Ulsan, South Korea.
The newbuilds , ordered back in 2018, have been named Overseas Gulf Coast and Overseas Sun Coast.
As explained, they were built to comply with MARPOL Annex VI Regulation 13 Tier III standards regarding nitrogen oxide emissions within emission control areas.
In addition, each vessel is fitted with an exhaust gas cleaning system to meet the standards of MARPOL Annex VI Regulation 14 standards regarding sulphur oxide emissions, according to the company.
“These tanker deliveries mark the latest in a long history of co-operation with Hyundai shipyards, being the 52nd and 53rd in the multiple series of vessels built for OSG by Hyundai,” Patrick O’Halloran, OSG’s COO, commented.
The Overseas Gulf Coast and Overseas Sun Coast will be operating in the international market under the Marshall Islands flag, with both vessels having entered into one-year time charters. Following this initial contract period, OSG anticipates that the vessels will transition to operate under the US flag.
Sam Norton, OSG’s President and CEO, elaborated on the potential commercial future of these vessels:
“An important … initiative in the U.S. House of Representatives’ annual National Defense Authorization Act seeks to augment the current Maritime Security Program with a new Tanker Security Program. The Tanker Security Program as conceived would, if made law, create a fleet of up to ten U.S. flagged MR tankers in a program effectively replicating the structure of the current MSP program.”
He further said that OSG’s both new tankers will be made available to join the above program if passed into law in the coming period.
OSG provides energy transportation services for crude oil and petroleum products in the US flag markets. Its fleet currently stands at 21 vessels. In addition, OSG has two 204,000 barrel barges under construction in the US that will be Jones Act qualified vessels, with delivery anticipated during 2020.