Tsakos Energy Navigation (NYSE:TEN) released second-quarter financial results and hosted an earnings call on Thursday. Read the complete transcript below.
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Summary
Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd. reported record-breaking revenues with expectations to surpass $1 billion for 2026.
The company announced a total of $1.60 per share in dividends for 2026 and plans to increase dividends in the future, subject to board approval.
TEN has a forward-committed earnings base approaching $3.5 billion due to high time charter rates.
The company is successfully renewing its fleet, having sold older vessels and continued a $3 billion newbuilding program.
Management highlighted significant geopolitical challenges, particularly in the Middle East, affecting operations but also contributing to strong market conditions.
Net income for the first half of 2026 increased by 253% to $228 million compared to the same period in 2025.
TEN's fleet renewal strategy includes divesting older vessels and acquiring energy-efficient newbuildings, with current fleet valuation significantly higher than purchase costs.
There is strong profit-sharing from spot market exposure, with a notable increase in contributions compared to the previous year.
The company is considering future asset sales and potential restructuring to unlock value but maintains it will keep all operations within TEN.
Management emphasized continued operational caution due to geopolitical tensions and market volatility.
Full Transcript
OPERATOR
Thank you for standing by, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Tsakos Energy Navigation conference call on the second quarter 2026 financial results. We have with us Mr. Takis Arapoglou, Chairman of the Board, Mr. Nikolaos Tsakos, Founder and CEO, Mr. George Saroglou, President and Chief Operating Officer, and Mr. Harrys Kosmatos, CFO of the company. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. There will be a presentation followed by a question-and-answer session, at which time, if you wish to ask a question, please press star-one on your telephone keypad and wait for your name to be announced.
I must advise you that this conference is being recorded today. And now I pass the floor to Mr. Nicolas Bornozis, President of Capital Link and Investor Relations Advisor to Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd. Please go ahead, sir.
Takis Arapoglou, Chairman of the Board
Thank you, Nikos. Good morning and good afternoon to all. Thank you for joining our call today, presenting second quarter and first half results of TEN. And of course, once again, congratulations to Nikos Tsakos and the team for the stellar results as briefly described by Mr. Bornozis. TEN's model has proven that it works even in weak markets, so no surprise that it works so well also in this market where current market conditions are very favorable.
And it's a great opportunity for TEN to continue generating cash from operations, to continue from selling older vessels, to renew the fleet and generate more cash, to fund a record order book. As you have seen in the press release, keep cash for contingencies, perhaps if the board decides to repay, redeem the Series E preferred. Nobody knows. It's a next-year issue. And more importantly, rewarding our investors. I want to emphasize this because during the calendar year 2026, we paid dividends of $0.60 and $1.00 for a total of $1.60 per share.
And it's obvious that this can only go higher if approved by the board and if current conditions are maintained. This is a solid yield of very close to 4%. And it's a generous payout compared to other companies in the sector. So we want to underline that we want to reward our shareholders for staying with us, who have actually benefited also from nearly doubling of the stock price in the last two years. Finally, TEN is making use of the strong market and of the high time charter rates to lock in high returns for its fleet.
And up to now, the total of forward-committed earnings is approaching $3.5 billion. So this is a great cushion and great base to look forward to continued success in the next two to three years. So once again, congratulations to Nikos Tsakos and the team for the stellar results and sincere wishes for continued success. Thank you very much. And now, Nikos Tsakos, the glory is yours. I pass on the floor to you.
Nikolaos Tsakos, Founder and CEO
Thank you, Chairman. Thank you very much for your kind words, and hopefully we will continue this trend. Before that, of course, from all of us here in TEN and the family, we all remember 9/11. We have all been living in the U.S. and New York for the last 45 years. Many of us around this table were there 25 years ago. Our office, our original office in New York, is just on Rector Street, two blocks south of Ground Zero. And just to remind you that we were the first company to go public after 9/11.
We went public in March 2002, and we were actually starting a roadshow after Labor Day originally in 2001, before these terrible events. So it's, I would say, very much in our mind and in our hearts, and we do not forget 9/11. Well, on a happier note, I have to say that this is a record-breaking period for our results in many segments. But looking back at it, it seems even after the first six months, which have been very profitable, the second part is actually even stronger.
The appetite of the major oil companies and all the charterers is unprecedented. I've never seen that in my 30-plus years in business. A year ago I would be happy when we said we had business for one, two, three years for our existing ships. Right now charterers are there to take anything which is 10 years or younger for up to seven years, and their appetite. So we are actually balancing this luxury problem to have together with our commercial department.
We are making sure that TEN is taking advantage of the highs and at the same time secures long-term employment for when things become—for a rainy day, as they say. It is actually also very rewarding to see that we had our largest newbuilding program of 26 vessels started two years ago. We have already taken delivery of seven of those ships, and the valuation of those ships has already increased by at least 30%. So I think our $3 billion newbuilding program is close to a value today, close to $3.8, $3.9 billion and growing on a monthly basis.
So we are very well in the money. We took the decision to rebuild a big part of our fleet at a time where values, newbuilding values, were, I would say, more logical. So looking forward, we're looking for a good year. As the Chairman said, we're looking to increase the dividend for our shareholders. And we always make this announcement after our strategy meeting in November. So looking forward for an increase of that, and hopefully the market will maintain its strength right now.
And for more details, I will ask Mr. Saroglou, our President, to give us what has happened in the first six months and subsequent events.
George Saroglou, President and Chief Operating Officer
Thank you, Nikos. We are very pleased today to report another profitable quarter excluding capital gains. This is a record-breaking quarter and first half for net income. We maintain a steady course in the most turbulent geopolitical environment in recent memory. The year started with the political developments in Venezuela and escalated with the war in the Middle East and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait of Hormuz experienced its most severe disruption in modern history, effectively halting normal global ocean-going commerce.
The world was hoping for a resolution following the signing of a ceasefire agreement, which quickly unraveled halfway through the 60-day period it was supposed to last. There is a U.S. naval blockade that tries to manage the safe passage of tankers in and out of this narrow high-risk area. We have attacks on ocean-going vessels that attempt to cross the strait on their own or with the protection of the U.S. Navy. Vessels have been attacked and seafarers serving on board have been injured and killed while trying to do their job and keep the world and global commerce going.
Our company continues to avoid the Strait of Hormuz. Our thoughts and prayers are with all the seafarers that are stranded inside the area and have to endure every day the unnecessary stress and psychological mental fatigue for which they are not responsible. Tanker market fundamentals were strong even before geopolitics took center stage at the end of February. 2026 was forecasted to be another year with growth in global oil demand while tonnage supply remained very balanced.
The effect of the war in the Middle East and the ongoing closure in the Strait of Hormuz resulted in elevated crude oil and product prices that affected global oil demand. Despite higher prices, these geopolitical events have significantly added to the market strength in the tanker market. The tanker freight market has gone from strength to strength, and TEN's diversified fleet, with each new charter renewal and the fleet's market exposure to spot and profit-sharing rates, will continue to further benefit from this unprecedented market dislocation.
And this is basically what we have done in the 33-year history we have as a public company. And this is what basically we say in slide number one on page four, that we managed since 1993 to turn every crisis the world has faced into a growth opportunity. Today we have an 81-vessel fleet and we are one of the largest energy transporters in the world with a very young, diversified and versatile pro forma fleet of 81 vessels. In slide four we show this pro forma fleet of all conventional tankers, both crude and product carriers. The red color shows the vessels that trade in the spot market, and we have currently 10 tankers trading spot and our newbuildings under construction.
With light blue we have the vessels that are on time charter with profit sharing; we have 13 vessels. And with dark blue, the vessels that are on fixed-rate time charters; we have 39 vessels. In the next slide we list the pro forma diversified fleet, which consists of our four LNG vessels, two in the water plus two newbuildings, and our 16-vessel shuttle tanker fleet. We are one of the largest shuttle tanker operators in the world with a fleet of young and technologically advanced vessels.
On July 28th we took delivery of the DP shuttle tanker Anfield from Samsung Heavy Industries in South Korea, the third in a series of 12 DP2 shuttle tankers under construction at that yard. The vessel commenced a 10-year employment to a U.S. oil major with charter options to extend until the vessel's 20th year anniversary. Assuming charterers employ the vessel to the maximum duration, the expected gross revenue should approach 500 million. Following the Anfield delivery, we have seven shuttle tankers in full operation.
If we combine the two slides and account only for the current operating fleet of 62 vessels, we have 23 vessels, or 37% of the operating fleet, with market exposure—spot and time charter with profit sharing—while 52 vessels, or 84% of the fleet, is in secured revenue, which is time charters and time charters with profit sharing. In the next slide we list our clients with whom we do repeat business through the years. Thanks to our industrial model, ExxonMobil is the largest revenue client.
Equinor, Shell, Chevron, TotalEnergies and BP follow. The left side of the next slide presents the all-in breakeven costs for the various vessel types we operate in TEN. Our operating model is very simple. We try to have our time charter vessels generate revenue to cover the company's cash expenses, paying for the vessel operating and finance expenses, for overheads, chartering costs and commissions, and let revenue from the spot and profit-sharing trading vessels contribute to the profitability of the company.
Thanks to the profit-sharing element, for every $1,000 per day increase in spot rate we have a $0.11 positive impact on the annual earnings per share, based on the number of vessels that currently the company has exposure to spot rates, which is 23 vessels. We have a solid balance sheet with strong cash reserves. The fair market value of the pro forma fleet is approximately 4.9 billion against 2 billion debt, and net debt to cap is around 44.5%. Fleet renewal and investing in eco-friendly vessels has been key to our operating model.
Since January 1st of 2023 we have further upgraded the quality of the fleet by divesting from our first-generation conventional tankers, replacing them with more energy-efficient newbuildings and modern secondhand tankers, including of course dual-fuel vessels. In summary, we sold 20 vessels with an average age of 17.3 years and capacity of 2 million deadweight ton and replaced them with certified, contracted and modern acquired vessels with an average age of 0.5 years and 4.8 million deadweight ton.
We announced today the sale of two 2006-built Suezmax tankers to independent third parties for net proceeds of 100 million. Prior to the sale, and as previously reported, the vessels were part of a sale and leaseback structure, then repurchased for cash upon maturity of their lease at a significant discount to fair market value. And as we continue to transition our fleet to greener and dual-fuel vessels, we must note our well-timed newbuilding program and how well it is in the money today.
Our 26 newbuilding vessels that were contracted in 2023 are today at much lower levels than current newbuilding prices. In a newbuilding program of approximately 3.1 billion cost, we have today at least a 30% appreciation in value, even before some of these vessels are delivered to the company. Tanker market fundamentals have remained strong with the global orderbook still at a level equal to about 40% of the number of vessels that are 15 years of age or older, and shipyards operate at full capacity, while at the same time geopolitical conflicts continue to increase ton-mile dislocation, and that provides further support to an already robust tanker market. And with that I will pass the floor to Harrys Kosmatos, who will walk us through the financial performance of the first half.
Harrys Kosmatos, CFO
Thank you, George. So let me start with a brief summary of our six-month results. Favorable tanker market fundamentals, continuous geopolitical tensions along with the ever-present trading inefficiencies that have been created continue to propel the market to levels that on the one hand incentivize owners with a long-term outlook to fix for longer periods as demand for term charters remains unabated, while on the other encourage the divestment of vessels on all ages for lofty profits.
TEN, since the beginning of the year, has been active on both fronts and has reaped the benefits of such an extraordinary confluence of circumstances. The results of the first half and second quarter of 2026 are a vivid reflection of that, benefiting from a modern, versatile and efficiently operated fleet catering, in its majority, to the long-term needs of our clients. Fleet utilization in the first six months of 2026 was almost identical to the 2025 first-half level at 96.5% despite having six ships undergoing scheduled drydocks, from five in last year's first half.
As a result of the fleet operating at almost full capacity, with an employment policy inclined towards long-term charters with upside optionality through vessels operating under spot and profit-sharing contracts, gross revenues during the first half of 2026 increased to well over half a billion dollars — 551 million, to be exact — or 161 million above the 2025 first-half level. This was accomplished with an average fleet of 63.5 vessels, just a vessel and a half above the 2025 first-half fleet — quite an achievement.
Of interest, profit-sharing arrangements contributed 71 million of revenue during the first half of 2026 compared to 10 million in the 2025 same period. This substantial increase occurred despite a 22% decline in actual operating days under market-related contracts, while available days on fixed-rate time charters rose by 23% over the corresponding periods. The time charter equivalent rate per ship per day, impacting the above results and by extension reflecting the continuous robustness of the tanker market and operational efficiency of the fleet, reached $43,503 per day from $30,754 per day in the 2025 first half, a 41% increase.
Fleet voyage expenses in the first half of 2026 climbed to about 82 million from 68 million in last year's first half, the result to a large extent of increases in bunker prices of about 25% impacting vessels operating spot. Vessel operating expenses during the 2026 first half reached 111 million from 102 million in the 2025 same period, a modest and expected increase — the result of the slightly bigger fleet, higher drydocking expenses and the customary inflationary pressures.
On a per ship per day basis, this translated to $10,298, about a quarter of the TCE rate mentioned above. Depreciation and amortization expenses, again driven by the increased size of the fleet, which included the delivery of two MR product tankers and the repatriation of two Suezmax tankers from five-year operating leases, came in at 90 million from 83 million in last year's first half. General and administrative expenses at 27 million from 23 million in the 2025 first half reflected a somewhat higher management performance-based compensation from the 2025 first-half level and inflationary pressures.
As a result of all the above, TEN for the first half of 2026 generated operating income of $273 million from 111 million in last year's first half, inclusive of 38 million and 3.6 million of capital gains, respectively — an increase of 146%. Despite an increase in our financial obligations related to the growth of the fleet — 2.1 billion at the end of June 2026 from 1.8 billion at the end of June 2025 — interest and finance costs fell by 5.6 million, the result of lower global interest rates and lower spreads on new and refinanced loans.
Interest income, on the other hand, remained similar to last year's equivalent period at 5.6 million. Reflecting the performance outlined above — the result of commercial and operational efficiencies as well as positive market fundamentals — the net income generated by the company reached one of the highest levels in recent memory: 228 million from 64.5 million in the equivalent 2025 first half, a 253% increase. Now, if we're to exclude the capital gains recorded in both 2026 and 2025 first-half periods, as some of you are accustomed to doing, the 2026 first-half net income experienced a 112% increase from the 2025 first half, or in dollar terms, $129 million more. In terms of EPS, earnings per share, $7.12 in the first half of this year from $1.70 in last year's first half — in other words, a 318% increase. Adjusted EBITDA for the period was higher by 131 million from the 2025 first six months and reached 324 million, a 68% increase. Cash at the end of June 2026 stood at 466 million, 179 million above the June 30, 2025 level and 168 million above cash balances at year-end 2025. And now let's go quickly on our Q2 results.
Following the above pattern, and again by operating the fleet of 63.5 vessels from 62 in last year's second quarter, with four vessels on drydock to three in the 2025 same period, gross revenues climbed to 298 million from 193 in the 2025 second quarter — a $105 million increase. Voyage expenses during the second quarter of 2026 increased to 52 million from 32 million in the corresponding 2025 period, primarily reflecting higher bunker prices affecting vessels operating in the spot market.
Spot market employment accounted for approximately 12% of total fleet operating days during the 2026 second quarter. Operating expenses on the 63.5 vessels in the fleet were at 57.7 million, or a $5 million reduction from the 2025 second quarter, primarily due to the slightly larger fleet and an extra vessel over the three that underwent special surveys in the second quarter of 2025. Depreciation and amortization expenses for the 2026 second-quarter period were 46.3 million from 42.1 million in the 2025 second quarter, the result of a marginally larger fleet and the reintroduction of the two Suezmaxes mentioned earlier.
General and administrative expenses during the 2026 second quarter reached 14.8 million from 13.2 million in the 2025 second quarter, a marginal 1.6 million increase. Interest and finance costs in the second quarter came in lower from the 2025 second quarter — 22.6 million from 25 million, or a 2.3 million reduction. On the other hand, interest income during the 2026 second quarter was marginally higher than the 2025 equivalent period, at 3.4 million.
Reflecting the above performance, the net income for the second quarter of 2026, after a $38 million capital gain, climbed to 139.3 million from 26.8 million in last year's second quarter, which, unlike this one, had no gains or losses recorded. In terms of EPS, the above figures translate to $4.40 for this year's second quarter compared to $0.67 in last year's second quarter — a 557% increase. Adjusted EBITDA for the second quarter of 2026 was 81% higher from the 2025 second quarter to reach 170.4 million, or 76.5 million higher.
And with this, I'll pass it back to Nikos.
Nikolaos Tsakos, Founder and CEO
Thank you. Thank you, Haris. I think there has been a very detailed presentation of the growth of the company. I mean, we've been operating a similar size ship. If you go back, George, to the slide over the years, you will see that we have been operating a fleet of similar size for the last 10 years. There you go. So I think we've been operating a fleet of around 60 to 65 vessels for the last 10 years. And of course there you can see the big effect — the growth of the cash, the growth of earnings, the growth of EBITDA — and hopefully 2026 will be a milestone year.
I think, as Nicolas Bornozis said, the company will be exceeding in revenues $1 billion significantly and, of course, a very strong EBITDA. And with this, I would like to open the floor for any questions.
OPERATOR
Thank you. We will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we poll for questions.
Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Poe Fratt with Alliance Global Partners. Please proceed with your question.
Poe Fratt, Analyst at Alliance Global Partners
Hello, Harry. I would just like to clarify the profit-sharing contribution for the second quarter. I think I heard you say that the first-half contribution was 71 million, and I had the first-quarter contribution at 40 million. So was the second-quarter contribution 31 million?
Harrys Kosmatos, CFO
No, no, you rightly heard. The contribution for 1H26 was 71 million — 71 million — while last year it was 10, 4.5 and kind of 5.6 million. That was the profit sharing received at the same period last year. So effectively, we generated seven times more the profit sharing than we did this time last year. And perhaps an interesting tidbit is that for the entire 2025 period, the profit share was at 46 million. So you can imagine, at 70 million in the first half, that things are looking rosier.
Poe Fratt, Analyst at Alliance Global Partners
Yeah, I just wanted to clarify what the contribution was in the second quarter.
Harrys Kosmatos, CFO
Sorry. In 2Q26, it was 30.5 million. Correct.
Poe Fratt, Analyst at Alliance Global Partners
Okay, great. Yep, that's helpful. And then can you help me understand the outlook for the second half of the year from a profit-sharing standpoint? It looks like some of the Vs may have moved onto profit-sharing agreements. And so, you know, relative to the second quarter, should we see the profit-sharing contribution increase or stay about the same? Any color would be helpful on the profit-sharing contribution.
Nikolaos Tsakos, Founder and CEO
Well, we're expecting significant increase in profit sharing for the second half of the year. We have renegotiated drastic increases in minimums and also the profit-sharing arrangements, much more favorable to the owners. As I said, the charterers are very eager to employ good quality vessels, and so they are much more giving. And of course, at the same time it's a win-win situation, because, as you know, the refinery margins are on all-time highs.
So our clients — and we're very happy about that — are making very good returns. So they're not stingy in sharing some of the returns with us, the transporters. Now look, it's very positive, Paul, because we have 13 vessels today on arrangements, nine of which are of the bigger sizes — Suezmaxes and VLs. So we have seven Suezmaxes and two VLs in the profit-sharing arrangement. So as you can imagine, we expect that the profit sharing will be quite meaningful going forward.
We'll be able to afford turkey for Thanksgiving, it seems this year, I hope, with a lot of stuffing.
Poe Fratt, Analyst at Alliance Global Partners
When you look at the asset sales program, you know you sold two in August. Can you just highlight the gain that you're going to report in third quarter from those sales? And then, more importantly, what other assets might you sell over the second half of the year, looking into 1H27?
Nikolaos Tsakos, Founder and CEO
Well, as I said, we look at those vessels. All the vessels that are in the list have been built by then on behalf of our clients, who are still the same. The actions, the severance, the pulse 20. years ago or 15 years ago. So they're very good quality ships. I have to drag them out of our new building department because they get sentimental with this. But actually the next save is going to be I would be sentimental also because it's a vessel that is older than my kinsman. So I think it's one of our older ships beyond this, which was built around 2003. So she's going to be the next one to go. And of course for further trading. She's been trading for one of the big majors since she was built.
And the major wants the vessel up to now keeps on chartering the vessel up to now at very, very healthy rates. But I think there's always a time to, to when someone becomes of legal age of 21 and over, we let them go. Well, for us as a company, we are actually very busy right now absorbing one of our largest growths, I think a big milestone of 26 vessels with a cost of $3.2 billion. And we still have to take over 19. And I think we're going to see a huge effect to our earnings, to our revenues because three VLs are coming in. And of course our VLs, we just less than a year ago we contracted them and they have almost, I would say doubled in price since then.
So today if we decided not to sell them as contracts, we would almost double the price that we ordered them. And the same goes for all our 26 new buildings. So I think we are not right now, and we are actually to be correct, we are looking again at vessels with long employment, specialized vessels like the shuttle tankers against accretive long term contracts. But I think we are very well placed, we are in a good place and we still have 19 new buildings that are well into the money to take delivery of.
Thank you.
OPERATOR
As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, press star one on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Clement Mullins with Value Investors Edge. Please proceed with your question.
Clement Mullins, Analyst at Value Investors Edge
Hi, good afternoon and thank you for taking my questions. You hinted at higher distribution going forward, which makes sense considering your financial position and the free cash flow you're currently generating. In the past you had mentioned potentially declaring, let's say supplemental dividends as net proceeds from asset sales. Could you give us an update on this front? It's obviously a discussion for the board, but any color you can give us.
Nikolaos Tsakos, Founder and CEO
Sure. Well, I think our intention is to significantly reward or increase the reward to our shareholders because I think, as our chairman said, we'd like to share, being the major shareholders ourselves, we like to share the upside pari passu with them. So we're looking forward for a nice dividend announcement after our strategy meeting in November. On the special dividend, we did it a couple of times, but we were told off by the analysts because it complicates and I think rightly so, it complicates.
They do not know if this is something it's going to be recurrent or not. So I'd rather add or increase the normal semiannual dividends because we need to keep our analysts happy and less confused rather than doing a special dividend. They felt that that was something that was a one time event and got wasted. Whereas when you have a company that has significant cash flow, significant cash, I mean, as Harry I think referred to, our cash since the six months has also grown in a big way.
And down the road we have our perpetual preferred, which is 120 million at nine and a quarter. And we are considering that actually taking this out, it's not an obligation, but I think it will be a very good use of cash. It will add anywhere between 30 and 40 cents to the bottom line just by saving on the high coupon. So I think this is. And of course continue to invest in our new building program.
Clement Mullins, Analyst at Value Investors Edge
Yeah, taking off the preferred definitely, definitely makes sense. And special dividend is not that confusing. But obviously it's a board decision, so we'll see. I have another question on the dividend. Is there any appetite to potentially move to a quarterly payment schedule? I mean, all your peers follow that model. So I was wondering whether this is something you'd consider.
Nikolaos Tsakos, Founder and CEO
Well, we actually have moved, I think about 10 years ago from a quarterly dividend to a semi annual dividend because for many reasons, for logistical purposes, I mean, shipping is operationally a more complicated business. You know, we're not landlocked, we're not land based. It's not, you know, it's not like we have five or 10 factories in various states that they produce. You know, we have ships all over. I mean, sometimes a voyage takes more than a quarter. So, you know, I think it's more appropriate for shipping. And I think even the President of the United States referred to it about a year ago saying that the quarterly dividends takes a lot of time, you know, from management time, CFO time, and also it's not, actually does not portray the actuality of the business.
So I think the short answer is we would maintain the semiannual dividend because I'd rather be able to give a big semiannual dividend just rather than smaller quarterly ones.
OPERATOR
Does that complete your question? Our next question comes from the line of Poe Fratt with Alliance Global Partners. Please proceed with your question.
Poe Fratt, Analyst at Alliance Global Partners
Thanks for taking the follow up, Nico. So in the last couple calls you've talked about potentially doing a restructuring of the company and maybe carving out the shuttle tankers or other assets that are long term charters. Can you update us on any progress on that plan?
Nikolaos Tsakos, Founder and CEO
Well, I think restructuring is something that our company, for 33 years, we have never had to do. So I think perhaps a reply could be the word because I guess I'm taking the opportunity from what you said to say that TEN is perhaps one of the very few companies that we have never restructured or renegotiated any of our loans in the last 33 years. So we've been paying our obligation, paying dividend continuously, paying our lenders continuously, and then maintaining a steady seat.
I mean, the company is looking at ways to add more value. We will not reduce the size of the fleet. We might consider again closer to the end of our new building program to carve out a small part of our fixed, of our fixed, you know, I would say the long term fleet about 20 vessels, but within TEN, it will be within TEN. I mean, we are approached by a lot of. By a lot of investors who would like to participate in what we said. I think it's on page five, which is.
It's called TEN special. It's like a pizza. So it is, you know, you see the 20 vessels there, and, well, those ships have very long employments and, you know, 10, 15, 20 years. And they could, they appeal to some shareholders that would like to invest into that, but everything would happen within TEN. TEN would maintain at least 60, 70% of the fleet. So it's not really. The ships will not be out of the company.
Poe Fratt, Analyst at Alliance Global Partners
Great, thank you.
OPERATOR
We have no further questions at this time. Mr. Tsakos, I'd like to turn the floor back over to you for closing comments.
Takis Arapoglou, Chairman of the Board
Nikos, on the last comment, I'd like to just add, if I may, that this is not at the top of our list right now. It's not something that any development in the near future.
Nikolaos Tsakos, Founder and CEO
Yes. So let's make that clear. Yeah, exactly, exactly. It's not on the top of our list, but it is another way that we consider to prove the hidden value of those ships that have very long employment but always, if something happens, will be within TEN. So really the TEN shareholders will not be affected at all. The fleet will maintain its big size, but perhaps a big shareholder will more specifically invest as a minority holder in this asset. But again, as the chairman said, this is more food for thought at this stage.
Thank you, chairman. And with that, again, I would like to wish everybody a good beginning of the new season. We're looking at healthy period from now to the end of the year. It is. We are actually literally operating in a operational minefield. So not only we have to maintain a steady, steady course, but geopolitical events, mainly in the Middle East, are making the daily business change as we speak. And the decisions we have to make, always with responsibility to our seafarers, I mean, our crews and of course, the safety of the vessel, the safety of the environment, because those ships are carrying huge quantities of oil.
And we don't want to put in danger saying this. These circumstances have created an unprecedented strong market. I think rates right now in the Gulf area, which, as you know, has been also attacked by the Houthis, or it sounds like a movie, the Houthis and are close to $800,000 a day, approaching $1 million a day for, for the VLCC in the Gulf. So this is uncharted territory which we're taking advantage of carefully and steadily. We all would like the world to be completely peaceful, even if we didn't make the returns that we are making, because it will make the sustainability of our business going forward much better.
And in the meantime, we are taking advantage of the situation. We are one of the biggest companies in Venezuela. Our vessel was the first vessel to lift legal cargoes finally from Venezuela. The Russian situation also is putting almost 25% of the world fleet out of the market. So we are looking, at least for the next year, at good and growing prospects. And. We will be attending, the manager will be attending the Capital Link and other events at the end of the month.
So we would like to be able to see, as many of you live in the United States and also Europe. And with that, we would like again to thank you for your support and as we said, always remember 9/11 as a very special day for the world and of course, for us and the company. Thank you very much,
OPERATOR
Ladies and gentlemen. This does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation and have a wonderful day.
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