After the New Year crude tanker rally ran out of steam, things are again looking up.
Mid-week saw a series of fixtures for VLCCs out of the US Gulf, and Fearnleys noted that the price spread between Middle Eastern oil and West Texas Intermediate hit $7 per barrel, incentivising the trade.
On Friday, the momentum had pushed the Baltic Exchange’s VLCC time-charter equivalent assessment up more than $3,600 to $41,362 per day and the suezmax figure up $2,500 to $29,145 per day following mid-month highs.
