Nordic American Tanker Shipping Ltd. - (NYSE: NAT) Announces Acquisition of Its Seventeenth Vessel

HAMILTON, BERMUDA, Oct 05 (MARKET WIRE) --
Nordic American Tanker Shipping Ltd. (NYSE: NAT) (the "Company" or "NAT")
today announced that the Company has agreed to acquire its seventeenth
vessel, a double-hull suezmax tanker built in a first class Far Eastern
shipyard in 2002 for a purchase price of $51.5 million. The vessel is
expected to be delivered to us no later than November 30, 2009. This
acquisition will be financed from cash on hand. No equity offering is
being planned in connection with this acquisition.

The new vessel is expected to be operated in the spot market or on spot
market-related charters.

Herbjorn Hansson, the Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer,
stated: "We are confident that this, our seventeenth suezmax vessel, will
be accretive both to dividends and earnings per share. Therefore,
dividends and earnings per share can be expected to be higher than had
this vessel not been acquired. NAT is committed to continuing to build
upon its successful operating model in which the elements of full
dividend payout and accretive growth are central."

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Matters discussed in this press release may constitute forward-looking
statements. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides
safe harbor protections for forward-looking statements in order to
encourage companies to provide prospective information about their
business. Forward-looking statements include statements concerning plans,
objectives, goals, strategies, future events or performance, and
underlying assumptions and other statements, which are other than
statements of historical facts.

The Company desires to take advantage of the safe harbor provisions of the
Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and is including this
cautionary statement in connection with this safe harbor legislation. The
words "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "estimate," "forecast,"
"project," "plan," "potential," "may," "should," "expect," "pending" and
similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.

The forward-looking statements in this press release are based upon
various assumptions, many of which are based, in turn, upon further
assumptions, including without limitation, our management's examination
of historical operating trends, data contained in our records and other
data available from third parties. Although we believe that these
assumptions were reasonable when made, because these assumptions are
inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies which
are difficult or impossible to predict and are beyond our control, we
cannot assure you that we will achieve or accomplish these expectations,
beliefs or projections. We undertake no obligation to update any
forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future
events or otherwise.

Important factors that, in our view, could cause actual results to differ
materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements include
the strength of world economies and currencies, general market conditions,
including fluctuations in charter rates and vessel values, changes in
demand in the tanker market, as a result of changes in OPEC's petroleum
production levels and world wide oil consumption and storage, changes in
our operating expenses, including bunker prices, drydocking and insurance
costs, the market for our vessels, availability of financing and
refinancing, changes in governmental rules and regulations or actions
taken by regulatory authorities, potential liability from pending or
future litigation, general domestic and international political
conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or
political events, vessels breakdowns and instances of off-hire, failure
on the part of a seller to complete a sale to us and other important
factors described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company
with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the prospectus and
related prospectus supplement, our Annual Report on Form 20-F, and our
Reports on Form 6-K.

Contacts:
Scandic American Shipping Ltd
Manager for:
Nordic American Tanker Shipping Limited
P.O Box 56, 3201 Sandefjord, Norway
Tel: + 47 33 42 73 00
E-mail: nat@scandicamerican.com

Rolf Amundsen
Investor Relations
Nordic American Tanker Shipping Limited
Tel: +1 800 601 9079 or + 47 908 26 906

Gary J. Wolfe
Seward & Kissel LLP, New York, USA
Tel: +1 212 574 1223

Turid M. Sorensen
CFO
Nordic American Tanker Shipping Limited
Tel: + 47 33 42 73 00 or + 47 905 72 927

Herbjorn Hansson
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Nordic American Tanker Shipping Limited
Tel: +1 866 805 9504 or + 47 901 46 291

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