The Tsakos Group and Hyundai are establishing a new shipmanagement company, documents filed with Greek authorities show.
Tsakos Hyundai Shipmanagement, a Marshall Islands-based entity, obtained approval to set up an office in Greece, according to a ministerial decision published on the internet this month.
The document does not reveal any details of the company, other than to say the application to establish it was filed on 21 October by Tsakos Hellas’ legal department.
Tsakos managers were not available to comment. Tsakos Hyundai Shipmanagement, however, is understood to be still in a very early stage. It does not yet feature on any publicly available shipping data platform or register.
Piraeus shipping sources speculate that the venture could be a vehicle to jointly manage LNG carriers. Hyundai Heavy Industries has built both LNG ships the Tsakos group is currently listed with: the 149,700-cbm Neo Energy (built 2007) and 174,000-cbm Maria Energy (built 2016). Online data platforms show Hyundai Ocean Service Co as both ships’ document-of-compliance company, which basically means it is responsible for their technical operation. The Greeks are said to have been very satisfied with the vessels’ performance.
Nikolas Tsakos, chief executive of Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN), told TradeWinds last year that the company envisaged owning half-a-dozen LNG carriers chartered against specific business by 2020. In the company’s third-quarter earnings for 2016, released in late October, chief operating officer George Saroglou said TEN was “now well placed to expand its LNG activities according to its clients’ needs and requirements”.
The Maria Energy was chartered to Cheniere Energy for at least 18 months, with options to extend for up to three years. The Neo Energy is said to have been fixed to CNOOC to work as a floating storage unit (FSU) for up to two years.
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Source: Tsakos
