Tsakos Energy Navigation Announces Delivery and Immediate Charter of Suezmax Tanker Dimitris P

News Release Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd. August 5, 2011

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ATHENS, GREECE – August 4, 2011 – Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd.
("TEN" or the
“Company”) (NYSE: TNP) today announced the delivery of the 158,000 dwt,
suezmax tanker
Dimitris P, from the Sungdong yard in South Korea. On delivery,
the vessel entered a twelveyear
time charter with minimum and profit sharing provisions to a major
Far Eastern entity.
The contract is expected to generate minimum gross revenues of
$100 million over its duration.
The Dimitris P is the sister vessel to the Spyros K, which was
delivered in May 2011 with an
eleven-year contract attached. This delivery concludes the Company’s
conventional suezmax
newbuilding program, leaving two DP2 suezmax shuttle tankers under
construction with
expected delivery and commencement of fifteen year employment in
Q4 2012 and Q1 2013
respectively. The two new conventional suezmax vessels have been
partially financed at
competitive terms by a European bank with whom the Company has a
strong and long term
relationship.
The Company continues to fix forward, despite the market weakness,
parts of its fleet on long
term accretive contracts, ranging from eleven to fifteen years. As
already announced, recent
chartering activities include the conventional Suezmax tankers
Spyros K (fixed for eleven years
from May 2011) and Dimitris P (fixed for twelve years from August
2011) together with the
two DP2 shuttle tankers (fixed for fifteen years from late
2012/early 2013) and the Company’s
LNG carrier Neo Energy (fixed for four years from 2012) are
expected to expand the
Company’s future revenue stream generating minimum revenues over the
duration of their
respective charters in excess of $830 million. As of today, the
Company has 36 out of its 48
vessels under fixed employment with the secured contract coverage
of 68% and 46% for the
remaining available vessel days for 2011 and 2012
respectively.
Cash flow generation, security and value preservation,
cost-effective management practices,
strategic vessel sales, dividend sustainability and further growth
in both conventional tankers
and in higher margin sectors of the energy spectrum as in shuttle
tankers and in LNG, all
remain within the Company’s overall strategy in order to navigate
and grow beyond the
constraints of the current market
conditions.
“We welcome the Dimitris P to our fleet and look forward to its
contribution to the
Company’s bottom line for the years to come,” stated Mr. Nikolas P. Tsakos,
President &
Chief Executive Officer of TEN. “The long term visible cash flow
generation of Dimitris P as
well as Spyros K will enable us to sail through the current market
trough with more confidence
and allow us to maintain our pre-stated policy of fleet growth and
steady dividend payments to
our shareholders. Finally, Mr. Tsakos concluded: “We would like to thank our long
established
charterers and our bankers that, by virtue of the length and level
of the charter contracts and
competitiveness of the loan terms showed faith both in the quality
of the vessels and in the
Company as a whole”.
As previously announced, the Company will pay a dividend of $0.15
per share on August 10th.
Inclusive of this distribution, the Company has distributed in
total $8.925 per share in
dividends to its shareholders since the Company was listed on the
NYSE in March of 2002.
The listing price was $7.50 per share taking into account the 2-1
share split of November 14th,
2007. The Company has been paying regular cash dividends since its
listing on the New York
Stock Exchange in March 2002.</DIV></BODY></HTML>