Aker Philadelphia Begins Tanker Construction

Aker Philadelphia Shipyard has commenced production on the third vessel in the ten-ship product tanker build program initiated in April 2005. Steel cutting for the ship, the seventh built by the yard since its opening nearly six years ago, was performed on one of the yard's two state-of-the-art plasma cutting machines. The third tanker vessel is scheduled to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2007. The first steel plates cut for the ship will be used in construction of the engine room of the 46,000 deadweight ton (dwt) product tanker. Upon completion, the tankers will be owned by American Shipping Corporation, a subsidiary of Aker American Shipping, and bareboat chartered to Overseas Shipholding Group, Inc (OSG). To date, six of the 10 tankers in the build program are under signed time charter, with two-ship agreements in place between OSG and Shell, BP and Tesoro. The first vessel in the series is expected to be delivered to OSG in the fourth quarter of this year.