Iran has booked another VLCC to store crude oil, and could be fixing more in the weeks to come.
Reports say the National Iranian Tanker Co. (NITC) had booked the VLCC Universal Prime for delivery into the Middle East around June 3-6.
NITC is “taking the vessel for 90 days, and they are still floating their inquiry in the market, requesting more tonnage for the purpose of storage," a shipping source told Reuters.
The Universal Prime could store up to 270,000 tonnes of crude oil, on top of the 28 million barrels of oil stationed offshore from Iran's main export terminal.
An industry player told Tankerworld that he “is confident this piece of news will firm up VLCC rates even more over the next few weeks.”
Leading shipbroker EA Gibson Shipbrokers reported two weeks ago that NITC had “taken as many as 14 VLCCs for storage or Red Sea voyages”, similar to a situation two years ago when Iran used 10 VLCCs for storage for three months.
According to Gibson, that caused "a dramatic upward effect on freight rates" at the time.
Tankerworld data shows VLCC spot rates for all routes rose more than 100 Worldscale points from an average WS 86 on April 8 to an average WS 190 on May 8, before softening to an average WS 160 today.
Industry players this week said they expected VLCC rates to remain firm despite activity slowing as charterers wait to fix voyages.
Reports say the National Iranian Tanker Co. (NITC) had booked the VLCC Universal Prime for delivery into the Middle East around June 3-6.
NITC is “taking the vessel for 90 days, and they are still floating their inquiry in the market, requesting more tonnage for the purpose of storage," a shipping source told Reuters.
The Universal Prime could store up to 270,000 tonnes of crude oil, on top of the 28 million barrels of oil stationed offshore from Iran's main export terminal.
An industry player told Tankerworld that he “is confident this piece of news will firm up VLCC rates even more over the next few weeks.”
Leading shipbroker EA Gibson Shipbrokers reported two weeks ago that NITC had “taken as many as 14 VLCCs for storage or Red Sea voyages”, similar to a situation two years ago when Iran used 10 VLCCs for storage for three months.
According to Gibson, that caused "a dramatic upward effect on freight rates" at the time.
Tankerworld data shows VLCC spot rates for all routes rose more than 100 Worldscale points from an average WS 86 on April 8 to an average WS 190 on May 8, before softening to an average WS 160 today.
Industry players this week said they expected VLCC rates to remain firm despite activity slowing as charterers wait to fix voyages.