In the last few years it’s almost been fashionable to have a Tanker Pool – after all, Pools increase partners’ utilization and hopefully provide partners more protection against a down market, with better returns than they could get elsewhere.

But is that it?

All Pools have probably figured out knowledge sharing at their meetings, they can prepare their partners for new regulations if they reach out to industry experts and maybe they’ve used someone else’s money to take a few ships in on charter – partner’s money? (How many of those deals made money in the last two years?)  But other than that, it’s mostly about collecting fees.

So what makes Teekay different to other Tanker Pool operators?

Unlike some of the other commercial managers operating in the tanker space, Teekay has real SKIN IN THE GAME. What does that mean to our partners? Well, while other pools exist to generate fees, our reason to exist is to create scale with consolidation; strength in numbers is key.  In our mid-sized Tanker pools, Teekay owns the majority of the ships trading in the Suezmax and LR2 pools and about half of the Aframax vessels in the Aframax Pool.

Fees for Teekay are necessary to meet the overhead, but the fees we earn are not a profit centre. Pooling won’t make us profitable in a bad market and return outsize profits in a good market – optimizing ships in the pools will go a long way to helping.

Owning 50+ mid-size tankers means our driving force is making the market work best for all of us, this isn’t solely with bottom line TCE; managing risk is key particularly with the terms and conditions of the contracts we agree. As an Owner we appreciate more the consequences, be it with piracy, sanctions and all the operational pitfalls that could be encountered. As commercial manager with our own ships we are acutely aware of these risks. Your success is our success.

Our fleet is technically managed in-house, we strive to be the best at operating ships; as a pool partner with Teekay, we help, advise and assist with anything from tank cleaning to regulatory change, to efficiency –  after all, bunker prices are on the up again.

We also have plenty of initiatives and innovation that make ships less likely to suffer off-hire, whether through people, machinery or regulations – we all need our ships working as hard as they can for us.

As a pool partner you will enjoy the protection of and benefits of our values – a team of people who care about getting seafarers home safely, maximising tanker optimization and maintaining our reputation and our partners’ reputation. We never ask anyone to do anything with their ship that we wouldn’t do with our own.

So next time you read about a ship in all sorts of trouble, not being able to trade and earn money – ask, why did it happened? Maybe it was a pool manager who didn’t have that ship’s best interest at heart.

The next time you see a ship drop the market by WS5 or WS10 points – whoever did it moved their ship but maybe there was scant regard for a healthy tanker market. Talk to Teekay for a quick, efficient and partnership based relationship to really make this tanker market recovery work for Owners.

Our SPIRIT Values

Safety & Sustainability
Passion
Integrity
Reliability
Innovation
Teamwork