Supertanker rates reach $1.27 million per day near Oman — OilPrice

Off the coast of Oman, ship-to-ship oil transfer capacity has reached its limit, while daily charter rates for VLCC supertankers have risen to a record $1.27 million. This was reported by OilPrice, citing Reuters, traders and analysts.

Oil transshipment in the Gulf of Oman

According to Reuters, Saudi Arabia redirected supplies from the port of Yanbu amid attacks by Yemen's Houthis. The country sold about 60 million barrels of oil to be delivered in September and October after transshipment in the Gulf of Oman: cargoes are transported by smaller tankers and then transferred to supertankers.

Under this route, oil is loaded on the coast of the Persian Gulf, transported through the Strait of Hormuz and transferred to a larger vessel in the Gulf of Oman. According to Kpler, since the beginning of September, the average daily volume of such shipments has been 3.6 million barrels, compared with 900,000 barrels per day in August, before the Houthi attack on the East-West pipeline.

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Shortage of supertankers

Kpler analyst Panayiotis Krontiras told Reuters that these volumes require between 36 and 40 additional VLCCs. Anup Singh, head of global shipping research at Oil Brokerage, said that an additional 2 million barrels per day of Saudi flows would create demand for another 15 VLCCs solely for voyages between transshipment points.

In his estimate, exporting volumes that were handled by 24 supertankers in August required 40 vessels in September because of the need for transshipment. Tanker availability is also complicated by the fact that 20 vessels are in the Red Sea and are waiting for the port of Yanbu to resume operations. According to LSEG data cited by Reuters, VLCC rates reached the record level of $1.27 million per day on Monday.