Three OSG products tankers get Tanker Security Program contracts

Tampa, Fla., headquartered Overseas Shipholding Group (NYSE: OSG) has been awarded operating agreements under the Tanker Security Program (TSP), administered by the Maritime Administration. The three are OSG’s medium range tankers Overseas Santorini, Overseas Mykonos, and Overseas Sun Coast. Through the TSP, each participating vessel will receive a $6 million stipend from the U.S. government each year.

The TSP has been created to provide a fleet of ten active, commercially viable, militarily useful, privately-owned, U.S. flagged product tank vessels trading internationally outside the Jones Act trades. The TSP gives the Department of Defense (DoD) assured access to U.S.-owned, U.S.-flagged, and U.S.-crewed commercial product tankers ready to support national economic and security requirements.

“We are proud to be admitted into the TSP program and to be able to support the US government in its military efforts. In addition to expanding the number of available, militarily useful, U.S. flagged tankers, a prime objective of the TSP is to deepen and broaden the pool of domestic merchant mariners who possess the requisite skills and experience to support a right-sized US flag tanker fleet. A future with more jobs for American mariners is an unequivocally good thing,” said OSG‘s CEO and President, Sam Norton. “The TSP is a critical program for the DoD, and OSG has taken a leadership role in working with its industry, labor, and government partners to get the TSP up and operating.”