TSAKOS Energy Navigation has taken delivery of the first of 12 shuttle tankers it has ordered from Samsung Heavy Industries, which it sees as propelling the company into the first rank of players in the shuttle tanker sector.

The ceremony in South Korea saw the naming of the first two suezmax-size units with DP2 positioning systems, ordered in November 2022 at a price of about $128m apiece.

Named Athens 04 (IMO: 9988164) and Paris 24 (IMO: 9988176), in reference to recent Olympic Games, the pair have been chartered for periods of seven years to a “European oil major” that industry sources have verified as TotalEnergies.

The French charterer has options to extend the employment for both vessels to 15 years.

New York-listed TEN said that total gross revenues from the two contracts, excluding any optional periods, are expected to be about $300m.

Overall, TEN’s minimum revenue backlog has now reached $3.7bn, it said.

The delivery of Athens 04, to be followed by the second vessel in June, will bring the owner’s shuttle tanker fleet to six units in operation.

According to a statement by the Greece-based company, they mark the start of TEN’s “second phase expansion in the Brazilian offshore space”.

The company’s presence in the segment, which has high entry barriers, goes back to 2013.

“This new milestone kickstarts a series of shuttle tanker deliveries set to make TEN one of the largest owners of such high-end tonnage in the world, and Brazil in particular,” said company president and chief operating officer George Saroglou.

Following the two vessels for TotalEnergies, the company has one delivery contracted to ExxonMobil, for delivery in 2026.

Thereafter, there are another nine, all backed with charterers to the Petrobras group, for delivery from the third quarter of 2027 to the third quarter of 2028.

TEN also has nine conventional tankers on order, including two suezmaxes, two medium range product tankers and five panamax long range one tankers.