DryShips Re-Enters Tanker Market

George Economou at the opening bell of the NASDAQ on February 3, 2005, in celebration of DryShips’ IPO.

George Economou’s DryShips on Tuesday announced plans re-enter the tanker market with the acuisition of a VLCC and Aframax from two unrelated third parties.

The vessels named DryShips has agreed to purchase include one 113,644 DWT Aframax tanker currently under construction in South Korea. The other is a 320,105 DWT Very Large Crude Carrier built in 2011. Both vessels are expected to be delivered to DryShips in the second quarter of 2017 and both will operate in the spot market.

The total gross price for the two vessels will be about $102.5 million.

“We are very excited to have re-entered the tanker market by acquiring a modern Aframax tanker of eco- design and one Very Large Crude Carrier at historical low prices,” said George Economou, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “We continue to look at opportunities to diversify and grow our fleet with high quality tonnage and significant operating leverage.”

DryShips currently owns a fleet of 13 Panamax drybulk carriers, one Very Large Gas Carrier newbuilding, which it acquired in January, and six offshore supply vessels, comprising two PSVs and four oil spill recovery vessels.

DryShips exited the tanker market in 2015 with the sale of four Suezmax and six Aframax tankers in March 2015 and June 2015, respectively.

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