Today the MARAD Maritime Administration of the Department of U.S. Transportation announced the registration of nine tankers the Tanker Security Program (TSP), the program created with the Aim to put together a fleet of proprietary product tankers private U.S.-flagged aircraft, armed with a crew of American nationality and active in commercial transportation international and at the same time useful to the needs of U.S. Armed Forces in order to meet the requirements of the Nation Defense and Other Security Requirements.

The programme is authorised for up to ten vessels and The registration of the first nine units took place in follow-up to the launch issued today by MARAD, which urged the Medium Range capacity product tanker proposal between 30 thousand and 60 thousand tons of deadweight and age less than ten years, following which they have been admitted to the program three ships of the Overseas Shipholding Group, three ships of the Crowley-Stena Marine Solutions and three ships of Seabulk Tankers (Seacor group). Four of the registered ships are already flying U.S. flag and the other five will change flag.

Program grants Department of Defense access guaranteed to these ships. For their participation in the programme the Registered ships will receive from the government up to a maximum of six million dollars a year, spread over a monthly basis, and will have to be made available to the government during times of war or national emergency.