Aker lands contract to build three tankers
Overseas Shipholding will use the ships to transport oil and chemicals to U.S. ports. The pact includes an option for three more, for a total of $700 million.
The Aker Philadelphia Shipyard scored a contract to build three more double-hulled tankers for transporting petroleum and chemicals among U.S. ports, a company official said.
The contract with Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. includes an option for another three tankers, potentially bringing the total to six vessels worth $700 million.
The deal needs approvals from the boards of the two companies and from government authorities, the shipyard said in a statement Wednesday night.
With the new order, "we're pretty much booked through 2012; we're at capacity," shipyard spokesman Tom Marinucci said yesterday. "It's a sign of the market's confidence in the ships we build."
The Philadelphia shipyard was launched in 1997 and subsidized with $429 million in public money, mostly from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The yard, on the site of the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, is a subsidiary of Aker ASA, a Norwegian shipping, fishing and engineering conglomerate. The shipyard here employs 1,100 workers, including full-time Aker workers and contractors.
The vessels are Veteran Class MT-46 Jones Act Product Tankers, and each carries about 14 million gallons of liquid cargo, or the equivalent of 26 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Federal legislation enacted after the Exxon Valdez oil spill requires companies to replace single-hull Jones Act tankers with double-hull tankers by 2015. According to market estimates, 21 single-hulled Jones Act tankers will have to be replaced by then.
Overseas Shipholding, of New York, is a major tanker company with 139 vessels. It will lease the tankers for 10 to 15 years from the Aker American Shipping ASA.
The yard already has built and delivered four container cargo ships to transport goods among California, Hawaii, Guam and China. Those ships, costing a total of $500 million, were built for Matson Navigation Co. Inc.
Aker then began building three double-hulled tankers; the first of these will be delivered in the next few weeks. The vessel will transport refined petroleum products among ports in the Gulf of Mexico. These three are part of a previous 10-tanker contract with Overseas Shipholding.
The Aker Philadelphia Shipyard scored a contract to build three more double-hulled tankers for transporting petroleum and chemicals among U.S. ports, a company official said.
The contract with Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. includes an option for another three tankers, potentially bringing the total to six vessels worth $700 million.
The deal needs approvals from the boards of the two companies and from government authorities, the shipyard said in a statement Wednesday night.
With the new order, "we're pretty much booked through 2012; we're at capacity," shipyard spokesman Tom Marinucci said yesterday. "It's a sign of the market's confidence in the ships we build."
The Philadelphia shipyard was launched in 1997 and subsidized with $429 million in public money, mostly from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
The yard, on the site of the former Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, is a subsidiary of Aker ASA, a Norwegian shipping, fishing and engineering conglomerate. The shipyard here employs 1,100 workers, including full-time Aker workers and contractors.
The vessels are Veteran Class MT-46 Jones Act Product Tankers, and each carries about 14 million gallons of liquid cargo, or the equivalent of 26 Olympic-size swimming pools.
Federal legislation enacted after the Exxon Valdez oil spill requires companies to replace single-hull Jones Act tankers with double-hull tankers by 2015. According to market estimates, 21 single-hulled Jones Act tankers will have to be replaced by then.
Overseas Shipholding, of New York, is a major tanker company with 139 vessels. It will lease the tankers for 10 to 15 years from the Aker American Shipping ASA.
The yard already has built and delivered four container cargo ships to transport goods among California, Hawaii, Guam and China. Those ships, costing a total of $500 million, were built for Matson Navigation Co. Inc.
Aker then began building three double-hulled tankers; the first of these will be delivered in the next few weeks. The vessel will transport refined petroleum products among ports in the Gulf of Mexico. These three are part of a previous 10-tanker contract with Overseas Shipholding.