Profile

Teekay is one of the largest shipowners in the world. They specialise in crude oil, LNG and LPG tankers. The company operate a number of Floating Production Storage and Offloading under their subsidiary Teekay Petrojarl in the North Sea. Teekay was founded in 1973 by Torben Karlshoej, then a 31 year old Danish ship broker who had emigrated to the United States at the age of 20 and mostly worked on farms. The company was named "TK" for Karlshoej's initials. It commenced operations by purchasing small second and third hand oil tankers, a lucrative trade due to the high oil prices during the 1973–1974 oil crisis. It maintained a head office in the Bahamas, thus taking advantage of low corporate taxes. Most of its ships were registered in Liberia, thus taking advantage of the comparatively low taxes and the ability to recruit seafarers from across the world. The company grew in the 1980s by operating in the risky waters off Persian Gulf during the Iran–Iraq War.