U.S. Gulf Oil-Tanker Rates Seen Buoyed as Bigger Ships Increase

Rates for Aframax tankers shipping 70,000 metric tons of oil to U.S. Gulf refineries may be buoyed this week by an increase in the number of larger crude carriers approaching the region, shipbroker Charles R. Weber said.
The ships earned an average of about $20,000 a day last month, more than double what they are making in Europe, Greenwich, Connecticut-based Charles R. Weber said in a May 31 report. The vessels unload very large crude carriers, the industry’s biggest transporters, which are too big to enter U.S. ports in the Gulf of Mexico. They also transport oil from Venezuela and elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Aframax supply has contracted in the Gulf of Mexico because of an increase in bookings as well as delays related to bad weather and a lack of spare capacity at some onshore storage facilities, the shipbroker said. There are a “greater number” of VLCCs bound for the region, which will buoy rates for the smaller ships, it said.
There were 29 VLCCs sailing to the U.S. as of May 31, according to weekly ship-tracking snapshots compiled by Bloomberg. The average this year is 26.
Source: Bloomberg