GE Credit Buys 188,500-DWT Tanker For $84.9 Million

The General Electric Credit Corporation (GECC), Stamford, Conn., announced it has acquired through a leveraged lease transaction its 12th tanker, the 188,- 500-dwt B.T. San Diego, from National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, San Diego, Calif.

Purchase price of the new vessel, which completed its sea trials in September, was $84,878,000.

The B.T. San Diego is a sistership to the B.T. Alaska, which was acquired by GECC in March 1978. It is 951 feet long and has a cargo capacity of 1.3 million barrels of oil.

Under the leveraged lease'arrangement, GECC made an equity investment of more than $29 million, and has entered into a 23- year bareboat charter to Marine San Diego, Inc. Marine San Diego, a wholly owned subsidiary of Marine Transport Lines, Inc., has in turn arranged a time charter to Shell Oil Company.

The B.T. San Diego, like the B.T. Alaska, will initially be utilized to transport Alaskan crude to Balboa, Canal Zone, for transshipment through the Panama Canal to Gulf and East Coast refineries.

With the addition of the B.T.

San Diego, the General Electric Company financial subsidiary now owns 12 tankers with an aggregate tonnage of 1,732,000-dwt and a first cost of more than $817 million. It is the largest fleet of U.S.-flag tankers under one owner.

GECC also expects to acquire two additional tankers this year, and has 1979 commitments for two supertankers to be chartered to Shell Oil.

GECC is the world leader in leveraged leasing of transportation and industrial equipment, with more than $3 billion of such equipment on its books.

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