Quintana Maritime Limited Announces an 8 Year Sale and Lease-Back of Seven Panamax Vessels for $250 Million, Net


ATHENS, GREECE--(Marketwire - July 2, 2007) - Quintana Maritime Limited (NASDAQ: QMAR) announced today that it has agreed to a transaction with Glitnir Finance AS, subject to negotiation of final documentation and satisfaction of closing conditions, involving the sale and lease-back of seven of its oldest Panamax ships: Coal Glory, built in 1995, and Iron Man, Linda Leah, Barbara, Coal Age, Fearless I, and King Coal, all built in 1997. The sale and lease-back transaction is expected to produce net proceeds of approximately $250 million, and the Company expects to operate the ships for eight years, paying an average daily bareboat charter rate of approximately $12,700 for each vessel. The transaction is expected to close before the end of July 2007.

Quintana will retain commercial and technical control of these seven vessels, which will remain in the Company's fleet over the next eight years. If the transaction is completed as currently contemplated, Quintana intends to allocate $185 million of the net proceeds to the repayment of debt outstanding under its revolving credit facility. In connection with this repayment, the Company expects to renegotiate its mandatory annual capital repayments of debt in order to reduce the payments by $9.0 million in the last six months of 2007, $17.0 million in 2008 and $11.5 million each year from 2009 through the maturity of the revolving credit facility in September 2014. Quintana expects to retain the remaining proceeds from the sale and lease-back transaction of approximately $65 million in cash.

The sale transaction is expected to produce a non-operating book loss of approximately $10.0 million, after write-offs of unamortized dry docking costs and expenses of approximately $7.0 million, which will be amortized over the eight-year lives of the bareboat charters.

Stamatis Molaris, Chief Executive Officer and President, stated, "This transaction is consistent with our strategy to reduce the average age of our fully owned fleet and mitigate the residual value risk from the Company's pre-2000 built fleet. We intend to achieve this objective by exploiting the current positive market valuations of secondhand assets. We expect that the transaction will strengthen our balance sheet and liquidity capability. We believe that the combination of our decreasing leverage and significant time charter coverage will provide the Company with the financial flexibility to take advantage of opportunities as they arise and to continue to reward our shareholders with a consistently growing dividend. We are very excited about this transaction, and we are looking forward to its successful completion."

Paul Cornell, Chief Financial Officer, commented, "We are very pleased to have agreed to sell and lease back these seven vessels at a competitive bareboat rate of approximately $12,700 per ship per day on average. Assuming we pay down $185 million of outstanding debt and retain the balance of the proceeds, the insignificant dilution resulting from this use of proceeds is not expected to have a material impact on earnings per share over the remaining half of the year."

Because the completion of this transaction and the subsequent use of proceeds are subject to the execution of final documentation with the buyer of the vessels and our lenders, as well as the satisfaction of closing conditions, we cannot assure you that we will complete the transaction on the terms described in this release or at all.

Fleet Table as of July 2, 2007

                                                                   TC
                                             Year     Age  Expiration Date
CURRENT FLEET              Type       DWT   Built (in yrs)(minimum period)
Lowlands Beilun          Capesize   170,162  1999      8.2       March 2010
Iron Manolis(A)         Kamsarmax    82,300  2007      0.2    December 2010
Iron Brooke(A)          Kamsarmax    82,300  2007      0.3    December 2010
Iron Miner               Capesize   177,000  2007      0.3     January 2012
Iron Lindrew(A)         Kamsarmax    82,300  2007      0.4    December 2010
Iron Knight(A)            Panamax    76,429  2004      3.1    December 2010
Coal Hunter(A)          Kamsarmax    82,300  2006      0.5    December 2010
Pascha(A)               Kamsarmax    82,300  2006      0.5    December 2010
Coal Gypsy(A)           Kamsarmax    82,300  2006      0.6    December 2010
Iron Anne(A)            Kamsarmax    82,000  2006      0.8    December 2010
Iron Vassilis(A)        Kamsarmax    82,000  2006      0.9    December 2010
Iron Bill (A)           Kamsarmax    82,000  2006      1.1    December 2010
Santa Barbara(A)        Kamsarmax    82,266  2006      1.3    December 2010
Ore Hansa(A)            Kamsarmax    82,229  2006      1.3    December 2010
Iron Kalypso(A)         Kamsarmax    82,204  2006      1.4    December 2010
Iron Fuzeyya(A)         Kamsarmax    82,229  2006      1.4    December 2010
Iron Bradyn(A)          Kamsarmax    82,769  2005      2.4    December 2010
Grain Harvester(A)        Panamax    76,417  2004      2.9        July 2009
Grain Express(A)          Panamax    76,466  2004      3.3    December 2010
Kirmar(B)                Capesize   165,500  2001      5.7       March 2008
Iron Beauty(B)           Capesize   165,500  2001      5.9       April 2010
Coal Pride(E)             Panamax    72,600  1999      7.6    February 2009
Iron Man(C) (J)           Panamax    72,861  1997     10.0       March 2010
Coal Age(C) (J)           Panamax    72,861  1997     10.0   September 2007
Fearless I(C) (J)         Panamax    73,427  1997     10.2       March 2008
Barbara(D) (J)            Panamax    73,390  1997     10.4        July 2007
Linda Leah(D) (J)         Panamax    73,390  1997     10.4    February 2008
King Coal(J)              Panamax    72,873  1997     10.5       March 2008
Coal Glory(C) (J)         Panamax    73,670  1995     12.3        June 2008
                                                       4.2
                                                     years
Total Current Fleet    29 Vessels 2,644,043        avg (K)
                       ---------- --------- ----- -------- ----------------

                                             Year      Age
FLEET TO BE DELIVERED       Type      DWT   Built   (in yrs) Delivery Range
2008
Newbuilding 1(E)         Capesize   180,000  2008        *    November 2008
2010
Newbuilding 2(E) (H)     Capesize   180,000  2010        *       March 2010
Newbuilding 3(F) (I)     Capesize   181,000  2010        *     October 2010
Newbuilding 4(F) (I)     Capesize   181,000  2010        *    December 2010
Newbuilding 5(G) (I)     Capesize   180,000  2010        *         May 2010
Newbuilding 6(G) (I)     Capesize   180,000  2010        *        June 2010
Newbuilding 7(G) (I)     Capesize   180,000  2010        *        July 2010
Newbuilding 8(G) (I)     Capesize   180,000  2010        *      August 2010
Total Fleet to be
 Delivered              8 Vessels 1,442,000
                                                       1.7
                                                     years
TOTAL FLEET            37 Vessels 4,086,043         avg (K)
                       ---------- --------- ----- -------- ----------------
* Under Construction

(A), (B), (C), (D), (E), (F) and (G) indicate sister ships. As of July 2, 2007 Quintana had seven sets of sister ships. All seventeen ships that were acquired from Metrobulk acquisition are sister ships. Sister ships indicate vessels of the same class made in the same shipyard. The sister-ship concept further enhances our operational flexibility and efficiency.

(H) Quintana holds a 42.8% interest in the joint venture that will own this vessel.

(I) Quintana will hold a 50% interest in the joint ventures that will own these vessels.

(J) Upon completion of the sale and lease-back, Quintana will operate these vessels under bareboat charters through July 2015.

(K) On a dwt weighted average

ABOUT QUINTANA MARITIME LIMITED

Quintana Maritime Limited, based in Greece, is an international provider of dry bulk cargo marine transportation services. As of today, the company owns and operates a fleet of 29 vessels, including 14 Kamsarmax bulkers, 11 Panamax size vessels and 4 Capesize vessels with a total carrying capacity of 2,644,043 dwt and an average age of 4.2 years on a dwt weighted average. In addition, Quintana has ordered 8 Capesize newbuilding vessels, one of which will be wholly owned and the remaining seven of which are partially owned through joint ventures. Furthermore, the Company has entered into agreements to sell and lease back 7 of its currently owned Panamax vessels. Once all acquisitions, newbuild orders and sale and lease-back transactions are completed and assuming no further vessel disposals, Quintana will operate a fleet of 37 dry bulk vessels, including 12 Capesize vessels, 11 Panamax vessels and 14 Kamsarmax vessels, with a total capacity of 4,086,043 dwt. The fleet will include 7 Panamax vessels operated under bareboat charters. The deadweight average age of the whole fleet, including the Capesize vessels on order and excluding the seven vessels to be sold and leased back, is currently 0.5 years.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements (as defined in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended) concerning future events and the Company's growth strategy and measures to implement such strategy; including expected vessel acquisitions and entering into further time charters. Words such as "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "anticipates," "hopes," "estimates," and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such statements include comments regarding expected revenues, time charters, and the results of the sale-leaseback transaction described in the release. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, no assurance can be given that such expectations will prove to have been correct. These statements involve known and unknown risks and are based upon a number of assumptions and estimates which are inherently subject to significant uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include, but are not limited to, successful completion of the sale and lease-back transaction, changes in the demand for dry bulk vessels, competitive factors in the market in which the Company operates; risks associated with operations outside the United States; and other factors listed from time to time in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company expressly disclaims any obligations or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements contained herein to reflect any change in the Company's expectations with respect thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any statement is based.

Contact Information: Company Contact: Paul J. Cornell Chief Financial Officer Tel. 713-751-7525 E-mail: pcornell@quintanamaritime.com Investor Relations / Financial Media: Paul Lampoutis Capital Link, Inc, New York Tel. 212.661.7566 E-mail: plampoutis@capitallink.com