Nordic American Tanker Shipping Ltd. - (NYSE: NAT) - Cancellation of Director and Employee Stock Options

HAMILTON, BERMUDA--(Marketwire - August 14, 2009) -

Nordic American Tanker Shipping Ltd. (the "Company") today announced
that it has cancelled all stock options (400,000) reserved for
issuance under the 2004 Stock Incentive Plan including the 320,000
options previously granted to its directors (10,000 each, 60,000 in
total), to the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (100,000), to
employees of the Company (80,000) and to employees of its Manager
(80,000). The Stock Incentive Plan was established in November 2004
when the Company became an operating company.

The stock options were cancelled in exchange for a payment equal to
the difference between the strike price of the options and the
closing price of $30.70 per share for the Company's shares on the New
York Stock Exchange August 13, 2009. The compensation of $7.23 per
option results in a cash outlay of $2.3 million for the Company,
which is covered by cash on hand. The cancellation of the options is
expected to result in a charge of approximately $450,000 to the
Company's Profit & Loss account for the 3rd quarter 2009.

Following the cancellation described above, there are no more stock
options reserved for issuance under the Company's Stock Incentive
Plan.

Herbjorn Hansson, the Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
stated: "When the plan was introduced the Company had only three
ships. With an operating fleet of 14 Suezmax tankers and two
newbuildings to be delivered next year, the Company today is very
different, and the cancellation of the options was appropriate. I
intend to use the net after-tax proceeds from the cancellation of my
100,000 options to purchase shares of the Company in the open
market."

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. Sørensen, CFO
Nordic American Tanker Shipping Limited
Tel: + 47 33 42 73 00 or + 47 905 72 927

Herbjørn 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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