Marathon Buys Aker's Stake in Crowley Tankers

Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) has agreed to buy Aker Philadelphia Shipyard’s stake in the Crowley Maritime Corp joint venture for the operation and chartering of four 50,000 dwt product tankers, which are valued at $150 million per vessel. MPC will take delivery of the four vessels by 2016’s third quarter.

The tankers are still under construction at Aker and the company intends to complete construction. But, it has sold its ownership position to Marathon for an estimated $110 million.

Aker and Crowley signed a joint venture agreement in 2013, which was valued at about $600 million to build four product tankers with options for additional vessels. In March, Aker and Crowley announced they had secured $325 million loan underwritten by a consortium of banks and financial institutions to finance the construction of the vessels.

The tankers will be Jones-Act qualifying vessels that are built at Aker and managed by Crowley including technical operation and commercial management of the ships.

Aker is also building four 50,000 dwt tankers for a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan, Inc., which will be delivered in late 2016 through 2017. The shipyard has also contracted with Matson Navigation for two 3,600 TEU containerships, which will be delivered in 2018.

In July, Aker announced it will change its name to Philly Shipyard pending shareholder approval.