TANKER owner Tsakos Energy Navigation has hiked the dividend paid to investors despite a modest dip in third-quarter profits reported on Tuesday.

TEN said it would pay $0.90 per share in its semi-annual dividend payment, following a payment of $0.60 per share in July.

The total of $1.50 per share for fiscal 2024 represents a 50% increase from 2023, a record year for the company.

Since listing on the New York Stock Exchange, TEN has maintained unbroken distributions for common and preferred shares, now totalling $870m.

“In an environment where new vessel supply is at its lowest point for 30 years, tanker market prospects look promising for the near future,” it said in an earnings statement.

The outlook stemmed partly from “the increasing appetite of energy majors for long-term contracts at healthy and accretive rates”.

Adding to the positive environment for the industry, TEN said, were “the absence of a clear direction on future environmental engine propulsion, coupled with longer tonne-miles due to geopolitical events”.

TEN has been seeking to distinguish itself from some spot-oriented peers with more segment-focused fleets.

Instead, it has positioned itself as a more industrial shipping company, offering a greater range of options to serve the long-term requirements of major clients.

As such, it vowed to continue maintaining a modern fleet, saying it will also “explore divestment opportunities for its earlier generation vessels and in that way monetise the full value of the assets the current market environment is providing for”.

The owner has already sold 13 older vessels in the past two years, raising about $400m in proceeds.

At the same time, it has ordered 21 new tankers of various descriptions, of which nine have been delivered so far and 12 remain on the orderbook.

They will join a fleet that currently comprises 62 vessels on the water, including a brace of liquefied natural gas carriers.

Third-quarter revenues increased to just over $200m from $186.7m last year in the same period.

Average daily time charter equivalent earnings per vessel increased slightly to $32,539 in the latest quarter.

“During the summer months of 2024, lower oil prices steered an upsurge in Chinese oil imports that facilitated stockpiling and acted as a catalyst for the recovery of tanker spot rates,” the company noted.

Three drydockings weighed negatively on fleet utilisation, which dropped from 96.1% in the third quarter of 2023 to 92.8%.

Net income fell by about 15% to $28m.

During the first nine months, that saw 11 drydockings and three repositioning voyages undertaken, net income stood at $160m, versus $271.9m in the same period last year.

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