Oil Trading in U.S. Gulf Dries Up as Tanker Rates Skyrocket
https://gcaptain.com/oil-trading-in-u-s-gulf-dries-up-as-tanker-rates-skyrocket/October 16, 2019
Soaring oil-tanker costs are drying up activity in the U.S. export market as sellers are slow to lower offers and buyers are skittish, according to market participants.
Some sellers have held back from offering cargoes, while others have yet to reduce their offers enough to accommodate the rising cost of shipping oil, according to 10 market participants. Buyers are holding out for deeper discounts after sanctions on units of China’s COSCO Shipping Corp. took away tankers from the global shipping pool, they said. As a result, hardly any deals have been booked over the past few days, compared to six or seven seen in a typical day.
Benchmark rates surged to about $300,000 a day last week for shipments from the Persian Gulf to the Far East, while one supertanker was booked to carry oil from the U.S. Gulf to Asia for more than $15 million. Indian Oil Corp. said the rising costs are forcing it to cut spot purchases. Shipments to Europe on smaller tankers have increased in the first half of the month as rates for larger vessels skyrocketed, according to Vortexa Ltd.
The increased shipments to Europe may tail off as the impact of attacks last month on Saudi oil infrastructure fades, said Stefanos Kazantzis, McQuilling Services LLC‘s senior adviser for shipping and finance. “We are not seeing yet the same volumes fixed for second half October as we did for first half for U.S. crude shipments to Europe.â€....
