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Voluntary Tanker Agreement [VTA]

The Voluntary Tanker Agreement [VTA] is an agreement established by the Maritime Administration to provide for US commercial tanker owners and operators to voluntarily make their vessels available to satisfy Department of Defense needs. It is designed to meet contingency or war requirements for point-to-point petroleum, oil, and lubricants movements, and not to deal with capacity shortages in resupply operations.

The existing fleet of readily available, government-owned ships need significant modernization or recapitalization within in the next decade. The same is true of the US-flag commercial fleet. If this recapitalization does not occur in a timely manner, there could be a shortage of heavy-lift vessels to deliver smaller floating craft, and tankers needed to move petroleum or potable water for sea-based forces. Programs must be available to facilitate the building or re-flagging of ships under the US flag.

For general (dry) cargoes, the Maritime Security Program, and the Voluntary Intermodal Sealift Agreement program, assure a cost-effective way to provide DoD with a worldwide network of container ships, terminals, and experienced personnel for sealift requirements. For petroleum cargoes, the Voluntary Tanker Agreement that provides a mechanism for U.S. tanker owners to make their vessels available to DoD for point-to-point transport of military fuels and lubricants. This agreement is designed to meet contingency or war requirements, it is not applicable to peacetime re-supply operations normally addressed by commercial type charters.

The Maritime Administration (MARAD) requires that each participant in the Voluntary Tanker Agreement submit a list of the names of ships owned, chartered or contracted for by the participant, and their size and flags of registry. There is no prescribed format for this information. The collected information is necessary to evaluate tanker capability and make plans for the use of this capability to meet national emergency requirements. This information will be used by both MARAD and Department of Defense to establish overall contingency plans. Respondents are tanker companies that operate in international trade and who have agreed to participate in this agreement.