UPDATE 1-Tsakos Energy Q1 profit tops Wall Street view

* Q1 EPS $0.66 beat est $0.61

* Q1 voyage rev $126.3 mln beat est $120.4 mln

* Says fixed 66 pct of fleet under long-term contracts

May 18 (Reuters) - Oil tanker company Tsakos Energy Navigation Ltd (TNP.N) posted quarterly results that beat market expectations, helped by long-term charter contracts.

For the first quarter, the company earned $24.5 million, or 66 cents a share, compared with $65.1 million, or $1.70 a share, a year ago. The first quarter of 2008 included capital gains of $34.6 million, the company said.

Voyage revenue fell about 8 percent to $126.3 million.

Fleet utilization was 98.5 percent, compared with 98.3 percent in the year-ago quarter, while total operating days rose to 4,078 days.

The company employed 33 vessels in the long-term charter market, helping it weather a fall in spot freight rates. It had employed 11 vessels in the spot market.

Tsakos said it fixed 66 percent of its fleet under long-term charter contracts for the remaining three quarters of 2009, which is expected to generate at least $209 million in gross revenue.

Shares of the company closed at $19.81 Friday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Vinu Pilakkott)