Nordic American Tankers Ltd (NYSE:NAT) - New Time Charter with a Major Oil Company

Hamilton, Bermuda, January 16, 2018

Dear Sirs,

In the autumn of 2017, we advised you of our time charter activities with oil companies such as Shell, BP, ExxonMobil and other major oil companies in the West and in the Far East.  The ExxonMobil time charter for a suezmax recently expired. However, we have an important contract with them involving lube oil for our suezmax fleet.  From time to time we also have shorter contracts (typically up to 60 days) for ships serving as storage space for major companies.

Expanding our time charter portfolio, we would like to inform you that we have entered into a one-year term charter with the major Spanish oil company Cepsa.  The ship in question is the 2004 built Nordic Castor. She is expected to be delivered on the time charter late February, subject to a satisfactory inspection in next discharge port.  The fact that NAT has only one million barrel suezmax ships allows us to achieve economies of scale.  The agreed rate secures a good cash flow.   The contract may last for 15 months.

With the conclusion of this deal, we will have 5 our 33 ships (of which three new builds for delivery in 2018), employed on time charters with major oil companies.

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking statements.  The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to encourage companies to provide prospective information about their business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans, objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than statements of historical facts.

The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The words "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "forecast," "project," "plan," "potential," "will," "may," "should," "expect," "pending" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further assumptions, including without limitation, our management's examination of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other data available from third parties.  Although we believe that these assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations, beliefs or projections.  We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions, including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in demand in the tanker market, as a result of changes in OPEC's petroleum production levels and worldwide oil consumption and storage, changes in our operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance costs, the market for our vessels, availability of financing and refinancing, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, vessels breakdowns and instances of off-hires and other important factors described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the prospectus and related prospectus supplement, our Annual Report on Form 20-F, and our reports on Form 6-K.

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