Teekay Tankers Ltd. provides an international marine transportation to global oil industries.
The company is a leading provider of international crude oil and other marine transportation services. The company’s tanker fleet size had increased to 39 owned tankers, five in-chartered tankers, and one jointly-owned Very Large Crude Carrier (or VLCC) tanker as of March 1, 2025. The capacity of the company’s tanker fleet had risen from approximately 980,000 deadweight tonnes (or dwt) in 2007 to appro...
Teekay Tankers Ltd. provides an international marine transportation to global oil industries.
The company is a leading provider of international crude oil and other marine transportation services. The company’s tanker fleet size had increased to 39 owned tankers, five in-chartered tankers, and one jointly-owned Very Large Crude Carrier (or VLCC) tanker as of March 1, 2025. The capacity of the company’s tanker fleet had risen from approximately 980,000 deadweight tonnes (or dwt) in 2007 to approximately 5,670,600 dwt as of March 1, 2025.
In 2024, the company repurchased eight Suezmax tankers. It sold two Aframax / LR2 tankers and one Suezmax tanker in 2024.
In December 2024, the company acquired Teekay Corporation Ltd.'s (‘Teekay’ or ‘Teekay Corporation’) Australian operations, which provide marine services to the Commonwealth of Australia, Australian energy companies, and other Australian companies. In addition, the company acquired all of Teekay Corporation's management services companies not previously owned by it. As part of the acquisition, Teekay Corporation transferred to the company its supplemental retirement defined contribution plan, which relates to the management service companies included in the acquisition (collectively, the Acquired Operations).
The company’s primary business is to own and operate crude oil and refined product tankers, and it employs a chartering strategy that seeks to capture upside opportunities in the tanker spot market while using fixed-rate time charters and full-service lightering contracts to reduce downside risks. In addition to the company’s core business, it also provides operational and maintenance marine services, and STS support services, along with its tanker commercial management operations.
The company has acquired a portion of its operating fleet from Teekay Corporation at various times since its inception, and it anticipates additional opportunities to expand its fleet through acquisitions of tankers from third parties.
Business Strategies
The company’s strategies are to expand its fleet through accretive acquisitions; capture upside opportunities in the spot market while using fixed-rate contracts; and provide superior customer service by maintaining high reliability, safety, environmental, and quality standards.
The company operates its vessels in the spot market, under time-charter contracts of varying lengths, and under FSL contracts, in an effort to maximize cash flow from its vessels based on its outlook for freight rates, oil tanker market conditions, and global economic conditions. As of December 31, 2024, a total of 40 of the company’s owned vessels, one vessel owned through a 50/50 joint venture, and five time-chartered-in vessels operated in the spot market through employment on spot voyage charters. Its mix of vessels trading in the spot market, providing lightering services in the U.S. Gulf (or USG), or subject to fixed-rate time charters will change from time to time.
The company’s lightering capability leverages access to its Aframax fleet operating in the USG and its offshore lightering support acumen to provide full-service lightering. The company’s customers include oil companies and trading companies that are importing or exporting crude oil in the USG to or from larger Suezmax and VLCC vessels, which are port-restricted due to their size.
Revenue Sharing Agreements
The company and certain third-party vessel owners have entered into RSAs. As of December 31, 2024, 25 owned and chartered-in Suezmax tankers and 20 owned and chartered-in Aframax / LR2 tankers in the company’s fleet, as well as three vessels not in its fleet owned by third parties, were subject to RSAs. The vessels subject to the RSAs are employed and operated in the spot market or pursuant to time charters of less than one year.
Ship-to-Ship Support Services
An STS support operation is the process of transferring cargo between seagoing ships positioned alongside each other, either stationary or underway. Demand for STS support services is often driven by oil market arbitrages and oil traders optimizing their cost per tonne-mile on cargoes. The provision of ship-to-ship services may be required by the company’s customers when blending cargos, breaking bulk cargo shipments, and optimizing opportunities when the oil market is in contango, which may result in the use of floating storage as a more cost-effective solution to onshore storage.
Oil Tanker Supply
As of December 31, 2024, the world Aframax crude tanker fleet consisted of 700 vessels, with an additional 48 Aframax crude oil tanker newbuildings on order for delivery through 2028; the world Suezmax crude tanker fleet consisted of 668 vessels, with an additional 106 Suezmax crude oil tanker newbuildings on order for delivery through 2028; and the world LR2 product tanker fleet consisted of 456 vessels, with an additional 180 LR2 product tanker newbuildings on order through 2028. As of December 31, 2024, the average age of the global tanker fleet was 13.7 years, which is the highest since 2002. Delivery of a vessel typically occurs within two to three years of ordering.
Marine Services
Teekay has been operating in Australia for over 25 years, and the company is one of the largest employers of Australian seafarers. The company leverages its reputation and operational expertise to further expand its operations in Australia with the consistent delivery of superior customer service. As part of the company’s Australian operations, it provides marine services to the Commonwealth of Australia, energy companies, and other third parties. The company’s marine services business in Australia provides operations, supply, maintenance, and engineering support, as well as crewing and training services, primarily under long-term contracts with the Commonwealth of Australia, for 11 Australian government-owned vessels. In addition, the company provides crewing services for an FPSO unit in Western Australia and bareboat charter-in a bunker tanker which is time chartered-out to a third party at a rate that is equal to the bareboat cost plus an operational element.
Safety, Management of Ship Operations and Administration
The company, through its subsidiaries, provides technical management services for its owned vessels. The company has obtained, through Det Norske Veritas (or DNV), the Norwegian classification society, approval of its safety management system as being in compliance with the International Safety Management Code (or ISM Code), and this system has been implemented for all of its vessels. As part of its ISM Code compliance, all of the vessels’ safety management certificates are maintained through ongoing internal audits performed by certified internal auditors and intermediate audits performed by Det Norske Veritas (or DNV).
The company operates its vessels under a comprehensive and integrated Safety Management System that complies with the ISM Code, the International Standards Organization’s (or ISO) 9001 for Quality Assurance, ISO 14001 for Environment Management Systems, and ISO 45001:2018 Occupational Health and Safety Management System, and the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 that became enforceable on August 20, 2013.
Operations Outside of the United States
Because the company’s operations are primarily conducted outside of the United States, it is affected by currency fluctuations, to the extent it does not contract in U.S. dollars, and by changing economic, political, and governmental conditions in the countries where it engages in business or where the company’s vessels are registered.
Customers
The company’s customers include major energy and utility companies, major oil traders, large oil consumers, and petroleum product producers, government agencies, and various other entities that depend upon marine transportation.
Flag, Classification, Audits and Inspections
The company’s vessels are registered with reputable flag states, and the hull and machinery of all of its vessels have been ‘classed’ by one of the major classification societies and members of the International Association of Classification Societies Ltd. (or IACS): DNV, Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, the American Bureau of Shipping, or Bureau Veritas.
The company’s customers also often carry out vetting inspections under the Ship Inspection Report Program, which is a significant safety initiative introduced by the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (or OCIMF) to specifically address concerns about sub-standard vessels.
Regulations
International Maritime Organization (or IMO) regulations relating to pollution prevention for oil tankers have been adopted by many of the jurisdictions in which its tanker fleet operates.
IMO regulations also include the International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea (or SOLAS), including amendments to SOLAS implementing the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (or ISPS), the ISM Code, and the International Convention on Load Lines of 1966.
SOLAS and other IMO regulations concerning safety, including those relating to treaties on the training of shipboard personnel, lifesaving appliances, radio equipment, and the global maritime distress and safety system, apply to the company’s operations.
Each of the existing vessels in the company’s fleet is currently ISM Code-certified. The IMO has issued guidance regarding protecting against acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia. The company complies with these guidelines.
All of the company’s maritime labor contracts comply with the Maritime Labour Convention (or MLC).
The company contracted with a class-approved hazardous materials company, Poly NDT Pte Ltd., to assist in the preparation of an Inventory of Hazardous Materials and with obtaining Statements of Compliance for its vessels. All of the company’s vessels were in compliance with Inventory of Hazardous Materials (or IHM) regulations as of December 31, 2024.
The company has complied with the USCG regulations by using self-insurance for certain vessels and obtaining financial guaranties from a third party for the remaining vessels.
All of the company’s vessels have USCG-approved vessel response plans. In addition, the company conducts regular oil spill response drills in accordance with the guidelines set out in the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (or OPA 90).
The company’s vessels that discharge certain effluents, including ballast water, in U.S. waters must obtain a Clean Water Act permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (or EPA) titled the ‘Vessel General Permit’ (or VGP) and comply with a range of effluent limitations, best management practices, reporting, inspections, and other requirements.
Each of the existing vessels in the company’s fleet currently complies with the requirements of ISPS and the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 (U.S.-specific requirements). Procedures are in place to inform the Maritime Security Council Horn of Africa whenever the company’s vessels are transiting through the Indian Ocean Region or the Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade - Gulf of Guinea when calling at ports in the West Coast of Africa. In order to mitigate the security risk, security arrangements are made, which include boarding armed security teams (when vessels transit through the Indian Ocean keeping a safe distance from Somalia) or arranging for security escort vessels (with 6-8 Nigerian Navy armed guards) from a distance of 195 nautical miles for all Nigerian port calls. In addition, the company’s vessels are also escorted through the Nigerian Exclusive Economic Zone (or EEZ) for calling at some ports of Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea, which are close to the Nigerian EEZ. The company’s vessels comply with the recommendations of Best Management Practices for West Africa.
History
Teekay Tankers Ltd. was founded in 2007. The company was incorporated as a Marshall Islands corporation in 2007.