11 May 2020
In recent weeks reports about floating storage have featured in the international press. In the 2nd half of April Reuters reported that oil held in tanker floating storage reached at least 160 millio barrels, including 60 VLCCs, up massively from levels witnessed just a couple of months ago.
The weekly tanker market report by Gibson Shipbrokers.
18 February 2019
2019 has already started out as a busy year in terms of tanker ordering activity with VLCCs and MRs once again appearing to be in vogue. So far this year, at least 12 VLCCs and 11 MRs have been contracted. Both asset classes also received the most interest in 2018, with 42 and 49 units being ordered respectively. Now, the question is, was the start of 2019 just a blip or a sign of things to come?
The weekly tanker market report by Gibson Shipbrokers features an overview of the crude oil and oil product tanker market.
27 May 2019
Many tanker market participants have placed significant faith that both fundamental developments and short term disruptive factors will push the products tanker market into an upcycle over the next few years. Much has been said about how new refining capacity in Asia, coupled with IMO2020 will create sizeable arbitrage opportunities from East to West, giving a substantial boost to the product tanker market. Whilst this view is certainly reasonable, the reality is not quite so simple.
The weekly tanker market report by Gibson Shipbrokers.
29 October 2019
Back in May we discussed the IMO’s plan to reduce CO2 emissions by 40% by 2030 and GHG emissions by 50% by 2050 (compared to 2008 levels).
The weekly tanker market report by Gibson Shipbrokers.
11 November 2019
A few months ago it was reported that the construction of the 650,000 b/d Dangote refinery in Nigeria will not be completed until the end of 2020, a year later from the original plans due to problems importing steel and other equipment needed for the refinery.
The weekly tanker market report by Gibson Shipbrokers.
29 July 2019
During the first week of July, the well documented arrest of the 300,000 dwt ‘Grace 1’ by the British government caused tensions to spike between Iran and the West. Iranian retaliations to arrest a British flagged vessel, the Stena Impero, in the Straits of Hormuz have seen numerous statements calling for calm amidst the mayhem of political games. The current state of affairs has sparked tales of the Suez Crisis and the Gulf War, so why has there been minimal impact on freight rates and crude prices?
The weekly tanker market report by Gibson Shipbrokers.
26 August 2019
In January 2019 the Trump administration announced tough sanctions against PDVSA, designed to halt US imports of Venezuelan crude. The US government also blocked access to its financial system for PDVSA transactions. Overall, sanctions have had the desired effect. Crude trade to US refineries came to a halt since February, down from approximately 0.5 million b/d in 2018. US also stopped exporting clean petroleum products (CPP) to Venezuela, most notably naphtha, used to dilute extra heavy grades to make synthetic crude for exports. Venezuela was largely unable to find a replacement for US clean products, with the volume of CPP imports into the country down by more than 50% compared to levels in 2018.
The weekly tanker market report by Gibson Shipbrokers.
15 July 2019
It is official. After weeks of speculation and some minor reshuffling in terms of meeting dates, in early July OPEC+ announced the extension of their production cuts for another nine months until the end of the 1st quarter of 2020.
The weekly tanker market report by Gibson Shipbrokers.
22 July 2019
Over the past few weeks, the West - East High Sulphur Fuel Oil (HSFO) arbitrage has firmed substantially from a fairly range bound $30/tonne to a bullish $46/tonne, briefly touching a four year high of $50/tonne last week. Several factors are behind this sudden widening.
The weekly tanker market report by Gibson Shipbrokers.
09 December 2019
The IEA has recently released its long-term view of the energy markets. The agency presented different scenarios and cautioned that its outlook does not provide a forecast of what will happen; instead it offers several scenarios that explore different possible futures, depending on certain assumptions at government, industry and consumer level.
The weekly tanker market report by Gibson Shipbrokers.
