Supertanker owners may send empty ships to West Africa rather than the Middle East to seek cargoes after a French port strike bolstered oil freight costs west of the Suez Canal, Optima Shipbrokers Ltd said Owners with vessels that have finished unloading in Asia may be “focusing on West Africa since returns are much better,” Nikos Varvaropoulos, an official at Optima in Athens, said by email today. While owners would normally try to secure cargoes before sending ships to West Africa, some may do so “speculatively” this time, he said.
Charter rates for oil tankers in West Africa and Europe have risen as a strike at Marseille, France’s biggest oil port, delays vessels and leaves them unavailable for hire for longer periods. The labor action entered a 12th day today, according to Inchcape Shipping Services.
The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index, an overall measure of crude oil transportation costs, had its biggest weekly gain since March, advancing 11 percent to 757 points, according to the London based Baltic Exchange. Today the gauge rose 11 points, or 1.5 percent.
The three main crude oil tanker types are very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, which can haul 2 million barrels; suezmaxes, which are half the size; and aframaxes that transport between 500,000 and 750,000 barrels, depending on where they trade.
Will Leslie, head of tanker derivatives at broker ACM-GFI in London, said by email: “Delays in the Mediterranean have filtered through into both the suezmax and aframax markets.” In turn, that “lent support” to VLCCs loading in West Africa, he said.
VLCCs trading in West Africa are making about $21,584 a day more than those in the Persian Gulf, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Charter rates for the vessels on the industry’s benchmark Saudi Arabia to Japan route fell for a seventh day today, losing 0.5 percent to 44 Worldscale points. By contrast, rates for the route between West Africa and the US added 0.9 percent to 62.02 points.
Daily returns from voyages between the Middle East and Japan plunged 32 percent to $1,661 today, rounding out the biggest weekly retreat in more than a year. Returns dropped 74 percent this week, the most since an 89 percent plunge in the week ended August 28, 2009.
Ship fuel costs $469.81 a metric ton globally on a weighted average basis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. VLCCs burn upwards of 90 tons a day when sailing empty, Riverlake Shipping SA in Geneva estimates.
Halvor Ellefsen, a tanker broker at SeaLeague AS in Oslo, said by email: Sending empty ships speculatively to West Africa “is a fair punt, provided the French strike continues a while.”
In the Mediterranean Sea market, “the ongoing disruption is likely to set the ball rolling once again next week,” E A Gibson Shipbrokers Ltd said in a report.
Charter rates for oil tankers in West Africa and Europe have risen as a strike at Marseille, France’s biggest oil port, delays vessels and leaves them unavailable for hire for longer periods. The labor action entered a 12th day today, according to Inchcape Shipping Services.
The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index, an overall measure of crude oil transportation costs, had its biggest weekly gain since March, advancing 11 percent to 757 points, according to the London based Baltic Exchange. Today the gauge rose 11 points, or 1.5 percent.
The three main crude oil tanker types are very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, which can haul 2 million barrels; suezmaxes, which are half the size; and aframaxes that transport between 500,000 and 750,000 barrels, depending on where they trade.
Will Leslie, head of tanker derivatives at broker ACM-GFI in London, said by email: “Delays in the Mediterranean have filtered through into both the suezmax and aframax markets.” In turn, that “lent support” to VLCCs loading in West Africa, he said.
VLCCs trading in West Africa are making about $21,584 a day more than those in the Persian Gulf, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Charter rates for the vessels on the industry’s benchmark Saudi Arabia to Japan route fell for a seventh day today, losing 0.5 percent to 44 Worldscale points. By contrast, rates for the route between West Africa and the US added 0.9 percent to 62.02 points.
Daily returns from voyages between the Middle East and Japan plunged 32 percent to $1,661 today, rounding out the biggest weekly retreat in more than a year. Returns dropped 74 percent this week, the most since an 89 percent plunge in the week ended August 28, 2009.
Ship fuel costs $469.81 a metric ton globally on a weighted average basis, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. VLCCs burn upwards of 90 tons a day when sailing empty, Riverlake Shipping SA in Geneva estimates.
Halvor Ellefsen, a tanker broker at SeaLeague AS in Oslo, said by email: Sending empty ships speculatively to West Africa “is a fair punt, provided the French strike continues a while.”
In the Mediterranean Sea market, “the ongoing disruption is likely to set the ball rolling once again next week,” E A Gibson Shipbrokers Ltd said in a report.