We are actively engaged in Washington with Congress and with sponsors for the program to first understand the requirements for manning and second to, plan for a ramp up of additional manpower. In conversations with labor, they characterize this as a good problem to have. I’m not sure if it’s a good problem. It’s a problem. And ultimately, it leads to more jobs. And one of the objectives of the Tanker Security Program is to broaden and deepen the pool of U.S. mariners available, for supporting maritime logistics for the Defense Department. So, I think everybody is on board and understanding that that’s a long-term goal, short-term, whatever teething pains or the real hurdles that exist, and trying to ramp up that manpower very quickly. That’s a concern, and I think that probably contributes more than the volatility of the international market for MRs in the long run.
I think that the availability of labor in the short run is a greater contributor to hesitancy in terms of putting more vessels into the program.
Unidentified Analyst : No. Thank you for the thoughtful response. It makes a lot of sense. And if I may follow-up real quickly, because I’m always interested in renewable diesel, and I know both Vertex and PBS, their renewable diesel plants have come online in the second quarter. Are you seeing any more appetite in terms of obtaining charters for renewable diesel runs or you had mentioned before, I believe you thought eight to ten vessels would eventually be involved in doing that transportation. I’m just wondering if you’ve seen anything change there. I mean, that’s the end of my questions. And thank you once again. And, great quarter, and I really like that guidance for 2024.
Samuel H. Norton: So, my take on renewable diesel is, if there were more MR tankers available in market today, there would probably be more appetite for movers of renewable diesel to take those vessels. As I said in my prepared comments, to our knowledge, every MR tanker is currently fixed and deployed. So, there’s no availability of vessels. So, it’s a little hard to speculate how, where there’s demand and where there’s supply because there’s just simply isn’t any supply right now. We certainly continue to field inquiries from some of the existing customers that we have about availability of tonnage in the future. So that leads me to believe that there’s probably still demand there. I think, just to hedge that a little bit, I think, and, you know, this, I’ve read in some of the comments that you post online, developments in terms of other states with renewable fuel or equivalent to the California, a low carbon fuel credits.
If those sorts of things were to come online, that might change some of the transportation dynamics for the long West Coast — Gulf Coast to West Coast trades. I don’t think anyone reasonably expects that to change in the next year or two, but looking beyond that, I think that’s an area of some question and probably tempers the appetite of our current customers in terms of looking at longer term contracts.
Unidentified Analyst : Great. Thank you very much.
Operator: This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to, Sam Norton, for any closing remarks.
Samuel H. Norton: Thank you, Drew. And, once again, thanks to everybody, for listening in. We’re certainly encouraged with the trajectory of our business and look forward to continuing to give you good news as we roll through the balance of this year and into 2024. Wishing everybody a good day. Thank you very much.
Operator: The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.
