Dirty Products News

Maersk Product Tankers A/S said that the product tanker market, which was challenging in 2018  is expected to improve from the end of 2019.The company that transports refined oil products through its product tankers vessel fleet said in a press release that while fleet growth had slowed significantly over the previous two years, the market remained heavily oversupplied.Product trade demand growth was positive, but below historical ranges. As a result, product tanker freight rates fell. This decline, combined with high fuel prices, depressed industry earnings, reaching lows not experienced since the 2008/9 financial crisis.After hitting near record lows in the third quarter of 2018, however, the market rallied in the fourth quarter.

The product tanker market registered a robust recovery in the fourth quarter of 2018, partially reversing the downward trend observed in the first nine months of the year, said Capital Product Partners.The Marshall Islands' tanker company said in a stock exchange annoucement that the beginning of the quarter was weak in line with the previous quarters, as rates hovered close to historically low levels, but the market gained momentum from early November onwards.In the West, the product tanker market experienced strong gains as earnings for MR product tankers on the benchmark transatlantic trade and from the U.S. Gulf reached three-year highs.

British BP has shipped a U.S. crude cargo to PDVSA's terminal in Curacao, the third one that the firm has sent since winning a tender along with China Oil last month to provide the Venezuelan state-run company with some 8 million barrels of light oil, according to sources and Reuters data. Venezuela started regular crude purchases last year and since then it has been launching tenders on the open market for at least one monthly cargo. In March it decided to secure provisions for the whole second quarter, doubling crude imports to some 95,000 barrels per day (bpd). The tanker NS Century chartered by BP loaded crude this week at Beaumont and Port Arthur, Texas, on the U.S. Gulf Coast and set sail to PDVSA's Bullenbay terminal on the Caribbean island of Curacao.

Heidmar announced that Olivier Faurisson will join the company as Managing Director of Chartering and Marketing in the product sector. Faurisson has experience in product chartering and pool building. He rose to the title of General Manager, Products Division, during his 13 year career with Total Trading. At OMI Corporation he was the Head of Chartering & Business Development, in the Product Tanker Division. Most recently, he was Head of Chartering at Scorpio UK Limited. Faurisson will be based in Heidmar's London office.

Marine Transport Advisors, McQuilling Services, explain important elements of their forecasting process when they develop the final forecast set out in their recent '2014-2018 Tanker Market Outlook' analysis. Interestingly, of four primary observations regarding vessels that transport crude and dirty products it was observed that the historically strong relationship between monthly OPEC production and VLCC monthly average spot rates between 2005 and 2010 had disappeared. This…

Delivery of second Aframax Vessel cements GEM’s optimistic stance in oil tanker industry. Gulf Energy Maritime (GEM) continues to expand its fleet to better serve its regional and international customers with the delivery of Gulf Valour, its second Aframax vessel. After two months since the delivery of Gulf Vision, their first Aframax vessel, GEM received Gulf Valour, which was also built by Samsung Heavy Industries. Standard Chartered arranged a Korean Export Credit Agency (ECA) to back the vessel’s financing.

Gulf Energy Maritime (GEM) continues to expand its fleet, with the delivery of Gulf Valour, its second Aframax vessel. After two months since the delivery of Gulf Vision, its first Aframax vessel, GEM received Gulf Valour, which was also built by Samsung Heavy Industries. Standard Chartered arranged a Korean Export Credit Agency (ECA) to back the vessel’s financing. The delivery of GEM’s second Aframax vessel reflects GEM’s leadership of responding to the market’s requirement as the industry gradually improves from the impact of the global financial crisis.

McQuilling Services has released its January 2008 Tanker Market Outlook for the period 2008 through 2012. The report, produced each year in January, presents a forecast for 10 trades in the five major tanker sectors through 2012. Six dirty trades and four clean trades are evaluated and discussed. Since a year ago the world economic outlook has changed significantly in the short term. Growth is expected to slow from 5.2% in 2007 to 4.8% in 2008. The slowdown was sparked by the US economy and its travails in the sub-prime mortgage market which have spread to the international financial markets.

Gulf Energy Maritime (GEM), the Middle East's largest independent commercial product tanker operator, has awarded South Korea’s Samsung Heavy Industries Co. Ltd (SHI) a $160m contract for building of two high specification double-hulled Aframax tankers – the first in GEM’s growing fleet. These Aframax tankers to be delivered before end of 2011 are to be named as Gulf Vision and Gulf Valour. The two fully coated vessels with a capacity of 114,700 DWT each are of Long Range 2 (LR2) specification – capable of carrying both clean petroleum products and dirty products such as crude and fuel oil.