Nordic American Tankers Limited (NYSE:NAT) Announces a dividend for the 80th consecutive quarter and a distribution of a dividend-in-NAO shares

Hamilton, Bermuda, August 4, 2017

We refer to our message to the market of July 21, 2017. Nordic American Tankers Limited ("NAT" or "the Company") today announced the declaration of dividend for the 80^th consecutive time. This time the dividend will be in two parts; 1) a cash dividend and 2) a dividend-in-NAO shares of a portion of NAT's shares in Nordic American Offshore Ltd. ("NAO").

Cash dividend:

The NAT Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.10 per common share. The record date is August 14, 2017 and payment of the dividend is expected to take place on or about August 31, 2017.

Dividend-in-NAO shares:

In addition, the NAT Board of Directors has declared a distribution of shares in NAO that will be awarded to NAT shareholders holding at least 250 common shares of NAT. The record date for the distribution of these shares is August 14, 2017. The distribution is expected to take place on or about August 31, 2017.

Each NAT shareholder that holds at least 250 of the Company's common shares as of August 14, 2017 will receive NAO shares. The Company plans to distribute one NAO share per 24.4 NAT shares. NAT will not distribute fractional NAO shares. Fractional shares will be compensated by a cash dividend based on the NAO closing price on July 20, 2017, which was $1.22.  

Each NAT shareholder that holds less than 250 shares as of August 14, 2017 will receive a cash dividend. The dividend will be such that the monetary value is equivalent to that received by shareholders who receive NAO shares based on the closing price of NAO shares on July 20, 2017 as reported by the NYSE, which will equal $0.05 per common share. As of the time of this release, NAT has a total of 101,969,666 common shares outstanding.

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 the general market conditions of the oil and natural gas industry which influence charter hire rates and vessel values, demand in platform supply vessels, our operating expenses, including bunker prices, dry docking and insurance costs, governmental rules and regulations or actions taken by regulatory authorities as well as potential liability from pending or future litigation, general domestic and international political conditions, potential disruption of shipping routes due to accidents or political events, the availability of financing and refinancing, vessel breakdowns and instances of off-hire and other important factors described from time to time in the reports filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Contacts:

Herbjørn Hansson, Chairman & CEO
Nordic American Tankers Limited
Tel: +1 866 805 9504 or +47 90 14 62 91

Turid M. Sørensen, CFO & EVP
Nordic American Tankers Limited
Tel: +47 33 42 73 00 or +47 90 57 29 27

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

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