Oil-Tanker Glut Seen Expanding for Second Week in Broker Survey

A surplus of the largest oil tankers expanded for a second week in the Persian Gulf, the world’s biggest crude-loading region, a Bloomberg News survey showed.
There are 19 percent more very large crude carriers available for hire over the next 30 days than probable cargoes, according to the median in a Bloomberg survey of six shipbrokers today. That’s up from 17 percent last week. Each tanker can hold 2 million barrels of oil.
The world VLCC fleet’s carrying capacity will expand 5.1 percent this year, near demand growth of 5 percent, according to data from Clarkson Plc, the world’s largest shipbroker. VLCC hire costs on the benchmark Saudi Arabia-to-Japan trade route are down 22 percent this year and declined for a fourth session yesterday, figures from the London-based Baltic Exchange showed.
“There should be more things going on today, but with still more than enough ships around, it may not lift rates up,” Kevin Sy, a Singapore-based freight-derivatives broker at Marex Spectron Group, said in an e-mailed report. “One of the cargoes in the list has been shown 11 vessels.”
VLCCs are earning $8,812 a day on the benchmark journey, according to the exchange. The ships lost money on the voyage for four weeks through April 26, its figures showed.
Source: Bloomberg