Printer Friendly Page

Tanker construction milestone reached (4/26)

Aker Philadelphia Shipyard has issued the following press release, which also is available on their web site HERE 25.04.2007 Construction Milestone Achieved on Fourth Tanker in Aker Philadelphia Shipyard Series Traditional coin ceremony part of keel laying in yard’s dry dock PHILADELPHIA, PA (April 25, 2007) – Work on the fourth tanker in Aker Philadelphia Shipyard’s current build program reached a significant milestone yesterday with keel laying in the yard’s Building Dock. The first section of the double-hulled product tanker scheduled for completion in 2008 was set in the dock adjacent to the third tanker in the series, also currently under construction. As part of the ceremony, coins were placed under the keel block recreating a long-standing tradition whereby shipbuilders hide special coins in the keel section of a ship as a permanent symbol of good fortune and safe travels. Anton Roaldset, Vice President of Procurement, represented Aker American Shipping in the ceremony, with Andrew Hake and Greg Marchese of Overseas Shipholding Group’s (OSG) site office at the yard participating on OSG’s behalf. Upon completion, the MT46 Veteran Class tankers will be 600 feet in length and be capable of transporting the equivalent of 14 million gallons of liquid product. The first ship in the program, the Overseas Houston, was delivered earlier this year and is currently in service to Shell Oil Company. The series of up to 16 product tankers will be owned by American Shipping Corporation, a subsidiary of Aker American Shipping, and chartered to OSG. To date, nine of the tankers are under signed time charter, with agreements in place between OSG and Shell, BP and Tesoro. In addition to the Overseas Houston and the two vessels under construction in the Building Dock, the second tanker in the series is nearing completion with testing and commissioning procedures taking place in the yard’s Outfitting Dock, and the fifth vessel was recently started with steel cutting of plates which will form part of the ship’s engine room. Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, Inc. is the shipbuilding subsidiary of Aker American Shipping. In conjunction with affiliated subsidiaries, the state-of-the-art shipyard located on the site of the former Philadelphia Navy Yard is in the midst of a project to build, own, and lease product tankers for the U.S. Jones Act market. Aker American Shipping and Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, Inc. are members of the Norwegian-based Aker family of global companies, industry leaders in the fields of shipbuilding, fishery, and technology-based solutions for customers in oil, gas, energy, and process industries. ###