Oil Tanker Industry News

The recovery of the global oil tanker market will be slow and gradual. We have forecast this many times during 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on past, present and future oil consumption.On 8 December, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated that the global consumption of oil will reach 98.2 million barrels per day (m b/p) in 2021, a 6.3% rise, 5.8m b/d on average, compared with the same figure in 2020. The good news is quickly soured, however, as the 2021-level will fall short of the 2019 oil demand by 3 million barrels per day.

The coronavirus pandemic is impacting global shipping demand for 2020 negatively. The speed of the virus spread makes it difficult to assess the full consequences. Nevertheless, we see a need to update our 2020 forecast to make some of this massive uncertainty tangible.What is going on in addition to the coronavirus pandemic?Geopolitical tensions that made the OPEC+ alliance break down, has subsequently made the crude oil tanker spot freight market erupt. The events that followed the breakdown - and those that are likely to follow…

Tanker and dry bulk vessel newbuild contracts have been signed at an increasing pace so far in 2017, with newbuild activity for the first half of 2017 surpassing the same period last year by 20 percent. According to BIMCO, 5.9 million DWT was contracted in May 2017 and 3.1 million DWT so far in June 2017, which brings the total amount of newbuild orders up to 19.6 million DWT for 2017. So far for June 2017, 22 tankers have been contracted amounting to a total of 2.6 million DWT. For the crude oil tanker segment, this has been entirely for suezmax ships with 1.9 million DWT ordered.

Nigeria's latest effort to combat theft could imperil its oil income lifeline, compounding the damage the crude price fall has done to its finances, access to dollars and imports. Oil traders and shipping brokers said a newly implemented "letter of comfort" requirement under which vessel owners must sign a guarantee that their ships will not be used for theft has made it more difficult and expensive to load Nigerian crude, putting some buyers off. A copy of the letter draft seen by Reuters asked vessel owners to "guarantee to indemnify" the government and national oil company NNPC against any illicit use of their vessel, which led some owners to reject pending bookings. Traders say others are refusing future requests for now.

A ban on 113 oil tankers by Nigerian state oil company NNPC must be lifted immediately as no grounds have been given for the measure, the global oil tanker industry association said in a letter of protest. NNPC issued a letter on July 15, citing a directive from President Muhammadu Buhari, which said the vessels, mainly VLCC crude oil tankers, were banned from calling at Nigerian crude oil terminals and also from Nigerian waters with immediate effect. Industry association INTERTANKO, whose independent members own the majority of the world's tanker fleet, said in a letter to NNPC, dated July 22, that there were no "evidence or grounds" given for the ban.

Some time ago, BIMCO expected the first signs of a solid recovery in the oil tanker industry to appear in the product tanker market. However, like other soon-to-arrive recoveries, the waiting time tends to increase as we approach the expected tipping point. This time around, global refinery throughput started the year strongly but entered a still running soft patch in May, high volumes but shorter hauls out of the U.S. Gulf, and the steady inflow of new ships were part of the cocktail that prevented freight rates from taking off big time.

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.

Effective July 1, any wide-body vessel entering the Houston Ship Channel with a beam of 120 ft. greater will be required to be double-hulled when sailing in darkness on the waterway and while in ballast. Three years ago when the Houston Pilots began sailing wide-body vessels at night, they required the vessels to be double-hulled. The industry requested and received a waiver for double-sided vessels with single bottoms. This waiver is scheduled to expire on July 1. The Houston Pilots, in collaboration with the oil tanker industry, agreed last year to allow larger vessels to begin transiting the Houston Ship Channel. The maximum allowable beam increased to 166 ft. (50.6 m) from 145 ft. (44.2 m) based on the industry's anticipation of larger vessels calling at Houston's port facilities.

Bloomberg has reported that shares of General Maritime Corp., the second-largest US oil-tanker owner, may not rise much further after Bermuda-based Frontline Ltd. raised its stake in the company and said it would seek talks to combine the businesses, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said.General Maritime’s shares are trading at 12 percent more than $36.70, which is JPMorgan’s estimated net asset value for the company at the end of 2006, analysts Jonathan Chappell and Glen Muller said in a report last week. Net asset value is the market value of the company’s vessels less debt. A takeover of General Maritime would be the biggest ever in the oil-tanker industry, based on today’s valuations.

expanded its coverage of the large tanker markets. The expansion comes after a surge of interest in the website from key tanker market players. unique analysis of the market. insurers. closely with key tanker brokers and the expert analysis team at Seatrends. The expansion of the site includes a full directory of tanker brokers and agents, as well as extensive search facilities on anything related to ocean going tankers. This is in addition to the existing directories of owners, charterers, vessels and yards. According to Boe, the main attraction of Tankerworld is the interactive tanker fixture section that enables users to discover in some depth the current and past trading history of each tanker. "There are literally thousands of log-ons every day in this sector", says Boe.