ATHENS, GREECE--(Marketwired - Feb 16, 2016) - Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd. (NYSE: TNP), a leading crude, product and LNG tanker operator, today announced that its Board of Directors declared payment of $0.08 per common share outstanding to shareholders of record as of March 30, 2016. Payment is scheduled for April 7, 2016 while the shares will trade ex-dividend on March 28, 2016. TEN has been paying uninterrupted annual dividends since IPO (2002) equivalent to $10.20/share.

"The material increase in our sustainable dividend payout is an indication of TEN's strength and confidence for the future. This confidence is supported by the current appetite of major oil companies for long term business, at accretive rates, as is the case with the seven new vessels that will be delivered in 2016, under long term strategic contracts. These new deliveries together with six more entering the fleet in 2017, also contracted, have increased the minimum fixed term revenues of TEN to approx. $1.5 billion and bring the average fixed employment of the entire fleet to 2.8 years," stated Mr. Nikolas P. Tsakos, President and CEO of TEN. "2016 will be a pivotal year in TEN's growth where our strong spot earnings, supported by the low levels of oil prices, and our fixed and flexible revenue contracts will further increase our revenues. However, this earnings capacity coupled with a strong and healthy balance sheet is not reflected in the performance of our stock and creates material dislocations between actual company fundamentals and our stock price. To this effect and by utilizing part of our substantial cash reserves, we are continuing with our share buyback program, which allows us to purchase our stock at a significant discount to market, and provides extra value to our shareholders together with our increased dividend.

"Today TEN presents a very attractive opportunity to invest in the tanker space," Mr. Tsakos concluded.

ABOUT TSAKOS ENERGY NAVIGATION
 To date, TEN's fleet, including two VLCCs, an LNG carrier, nine Aframax crude oil tankers, a Suezmax DP2 shuttle tanker and two LR1 tankers all under construction, consists of 65 double-hull vessels, a mix of crude tankers, product tankers and LNG carriers, totaling 7.2 million dwt. Of these, 47 vessels trade in crude, 13 in products, three are shuttle tankers and two are LNG carriers. In addition, TEN has an option to construct another Suezmax DP2 shuttle tanker.

ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted by such forward-looking statements. TEN undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.