Oil companies BP and PTT jumped into the VLCC spot market for two straight days that saw them benefit from declining rates that have hit the lowest levels in three months.
The spiralling spot rates come as the large crude tanker market waits for it hopes to be a winter spike that has yet to materialise.
The Baltic Exchange’s average assessment of time-charter equivalent rates in the VLCC spot market slumped to $28,300 per day, the lowest since 4 September.
That marks a 6.6% drop so far this week, and it means the spot market indicator has fallen 24.9% since it peaked at $37,600 per day on 19 November before heading downwards.
Also on Wednesday, the Shanghai Shipping Exchange’s index of VLCC charter costs for Middle East-to-China routes fell 12.8% in a day, reaching 796 points.
The day saw a dearth of fixtures.
But on Tuesday, PTT fixed the Angelicoussis Group’s 321,000-dwt Maran Thaleia (built 2011) for a voyage from the Middle East to Thailand at a WorldScale rate of WS 42.75.
The Thai oil company is paying just $12,500 per day, though the fixture is worth $20,300 per day on a round-voyage basis, according to VLCC operator Tankers International.
Scrubber-fitted
The ship, which the VesselsValue database shows is on one-year charter to Saudi Aramco, is fitted with a scrubber, meaning it can use lower-cost heavy fuel oil.
The rate is cheaper than the WS 41 that PTT agreed to pay a day earlier for Samos Steamship’s 298,000-dwt Kokkari (built 2008) for the same route.
The scrubber-fitted ship will earn a TCE rate of $14,700 per day, which equates to $18,300 per day on a round-voyage basis.
Fixtures by London-headquartered oil major BP similarly helped push rates downward.
The company fixed AET Tankers’ 300,000-dwt Eagle Veracruz (built 2024), a scrubber-fitted VLCC that is currently operated by Shell, for a voyage on the benchmark Middle East-to-China route at WS 44.
Tankers International said the Tuesday fixture is worth $32,100 per day, or $29,000 on a round-voyage basis.
The fixture is below the WS 47 in the route’s last-done deal on 27 November.
On Monday, BP chartered Minerva Marine’s 321,000-dwt Andromeda (built 2008) for a trip from the US Gulf Coast to the UK or continental Europe at a lump-sum rate of $2.85m, according to Tankers International.
The VLCC, which has no scrubber, will earn $17,600 per day.
The last-done fixtures on the route took place on 15 November, when they were worth lump-sum rates of $3m to $3.13m.
