Oil Tanker

Panic drove crude-tanker rates up, very briefly, to mind-bogglingly high levels of over $300,000 per day. Now, the fear factor has been contained. Charterers of very large crude carriers (VLCCs, tankers that carry 2 million barrels of crude) have said "enough" and are holding firm against sky-high...

The tanker market is on fire – literally. Yet another vessel has been attacked in the Middle East region – this time, an Iranian tanker in the Red Sea – marking yet another case of ships and their crew being used as pawns in a larger geopolitical conflict. The near-term effect for ocean shipping...

Oil prices were pulling back from their earlier highs as the U.S. trading day began Friday, lifted overnight by what was said to be a missile attack on an Iranian tanker off the coast of Saudi Arabia. At its peak overnight Thursday and into Friday, WTI on CME was up 2.41% from Thursday's...

Dallas-based Stevens Tanker Division has notified the state of Texas it will cease operations by October 15. The closure will permanently affect 586 jobs across Texas, according to a notice sent to the Texas Workforce Commission.  The tanker division, part of Dallas-based Stevens Transport,...

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets on Sept. 25 placed sanctions on two of COSCO Shipping's oil tanker operations for their alleged continued role in transporting Iranian oil. Specifically, OFAC added COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian) Co. Ltd. and COSCO Shipping Tanker (Dalian)...

The drone and missile attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities do not appear to be a doomsday event for crude tankers. At least initially, the rate effect is positive.   The most directly exposed shipping segment is very large crude carriers (VLCCs), tankers designed to carry around two million...

Expectations of an IMO 2020 spike in tanker rates are not just being subtly tempered on the product carrier side of the equation. There seem to be more caveats, at least between the lines, on the crude oil tanker front as well. Third-quarter crude-tanker rate disclosures and commentary from...

It's either the calm before the IMO 2020 storm or the calm before a ‘goose egg' for tanker owners and their investors. The IMO 2020 rule requires all ships without exhaust gas scrubbers to burn fuel will no more than 0.5 percent sulfur starting January 1, 2020. This change is expected to...

The dangerous geopolitical chess game in the Persian Gulf just got even more complicated. For the first time, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on a Chinese company for purchasing Iranian crude oil. The U.S. reimposed sanctions targeting Iranian petroleum exports effective November 2018. Waivers were...

Bill C-48, the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, was signed into law on June 21 after a contentious approval process in the Canadian Senate. It prohibits tankers transporting more than 12,500 metric tons of crude or persistent oils to or from ports and other facilities north of Vancouver Island to the...

A proposed ban on large oil tankers off much of British Columbia's northern coast hit a setback after it failed to get the support of a Canadian Senate committee. The Senate's Transport and Telecommunication Committee, in a split 6-6 vote, recommended against the passage of C-48: The Oil Tanker...

The listing of Diamond S Shipping (NYSE: DSSI) in late March marked the largest U.S. stock market debut of a commercial vessel owner in four years. Now, the focus of analysts and investors is on how soon and how quickly Diamond S will pump up its fleet and grow bigger still. The Connecticut-...

Oil tanker company DHT Holdings Inc (NYSE: DHT) is trading at a discount to its net asset value, and investors may want to consider taking advantage of the "attractive entry point," according to Morgan Stanley. The Analyst Morgan Stanley's Fotis Giannakoulis upgraded DHT Holdings...