Greek tanker shipping company Tsakos Energy Navigation (TEN) has taken delivery of the ice-class Aframax tanker Bergen TS, the last in the 15-vessel pre-employed newbuilding program.

The ship was built by Romania-based Daewoo-Mangalia Heavy Industries and started a long-term charter immediately after its delivery. Based on the shipbuilder’s data, the DNV GL-classed crude oil tanker was delivered on October 27.

The fleet expansion resulted in a 30 percent increase of TEN’s fleet over the last 18 months.

The first ship from the batch, the 300,000 dwt VLCC Ulysses was delivered in May 2016. It was followed by 9 Aframaxes, two Panamax LR1 product tankers, DP2 Shuttle tanker, and another VLCC and an LNG carrier.

According to TEN, with 65 vessels fully operational, the fleet’s minimum revenue backlog comes to USD 1.3 billion with average contract duration of 2.5 years.

“With the largest growth in the company’s history, successfully and timely completed, TEN is well positioned to take advantage of market opportunities as they will appear,” Nikolas P. Tsakos, President & CEO of TEN said.

“The fully employed renewal program is expected to significantly contribute to TEN’s bottom line and solidify the fleet’s income visibility and cash generation from now and into the future,” Tsakos concluded.