In mid-June, the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) formally adopted amendments to the MARPOL Annex VI that requires ships to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by combining technical and operational methods. The merchant fleet will be required to calculate their Energy Efficiency Ship Index (EEXI) and establish each vessel’s annual operational carbon intensity indicator (CII). The CII is an attempt to link GHG emissions to the transport work of ships.
This has been another step taken by the IMO towards the goal of halving shipping emissions by 2050. In reality though, there have been market participants and regulators who ...
CPP Tanker Supply Fundamentals
June 18, 2021
This week we highlight supply side developments for the CPP fleet, including an updated look at net fleet growth in 2021 and a summary of the CPP fleet’s orderbook and age profile to contextualize our views for the medium term. Starting with the current year, from January to May our vessel tracking data captured a return of five LR2s to the trading fleet from floating storage operations, 11 newbuilding deliveries and a net of four dirty-trading LR2s switching back to carry CPP cargoes. Compared to the DPP fleet, the CPP market has observed healthy tanker exits so far this ...
Is Shipyard Capacity Running Out?
June 11, 2021
In last couple of weeks, we have taken a deep look at different aspects of tanker fleet development moving forward, essentially arriving to the conclusion that in order for the market to recover, shipowners will have to delete some of their older tonnages and slow down the pace for tanker ordering. Instead, so far in 2021 we have seen a lot of vintage tonnage changing hands for what looks like premium prices as a well as a slew of orders for new tankers. All that while freight rates remain very low and in some cases below OPEX.
Although predicting owner ...
US Crude Imports Scenarios
June 4, 2021
In addition to this week’s news of OPEC and its allies maintaining their April plan for gradual production return, there was a story regarding the increased volume of oil imports from Russia to the US. Checking the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) data confirms the trend, with 197,000 b/d of Russian crude imported in March, the highest number reported since 2012. This development supports our call from January this year (in our Tanker Market Outlook report), that a tightening crude balance in the US caused by disciplined shale production and returning refinery throughput would incentivize increasing sour ...
