The discussion on the status of Libyan crude oil production has been a contested topic almost since the beginning of the blockades in the country’s oil producing facilities back in January. In fact, as analysts we have been trying to project developments in the region, especially after the destruction of demand due to the pandemic followed by OPEC’s biggest production cuts in history. With such fragile balances in the global supply and demand environment for crude oil, it is understandable how the recent announcements for the return of production in Libya is making headlines.
The commander of the ...
Floating Storage: Is There a Second Wave?
Sept. 18, 2020
We couldn’t help but devote some time into assessing whether the recent “chatter” about a second wave of floating storage has the potential to become a reality and thus support tanker rates; rates which have been suffering by all accounts lately. In short, we feel that there isn’t enough yet to warrant such a development, but as we have seen lately, stranger things have happened.
The conversation began when a well-known trader fixed at least 5 VLCC tankers on short-term time charters, presumably to be used for floating storage purposes - well after the observed peak in May-June (Figure ...
The Time for VLCC Drydocking
Sept. 11, 2020
We have touched on the subject of drydocking and scrubber installations a couple of times this year so far. The number of ships entering drydock to retrofit scrubbers or for regular maintenance has always been an important piece of the tonnage supply puzzle. Especially in the VLCC sector, the market has historically shown a tendency to find some support when a large number of ships comes off the trading fleet. A good example of that was the period August-September 2019 when we observed a flurry of scrubber retrofits in preparation for the IMO 2020 regulations.
This year, the discussion on ...
Another Motivator for Ship Deletions
Sept. 4, 2020
We have been following the news of the VLCC New Diamond that suffered from a boiler explosion and was set ablaze in the Indian Ocean, near Sri Lanka. Of course, the main tragedy has to do with the one crew member out of a total of 23 who lost his life in the accident, but we can’t help but also consider the potential implications for the environment as well as the economic ones. In the center of this accident, often overlooked, was the fact that the vessel was reported to be a 20-year-old tanker that was still operating normally ...
