Supertanker Rates Soar 678% As Saudi Arabia Floods The Oil Market

As Saudi Arabia and Russia began an all-out oil price war for market share, the shipping industry is going through a supertanker run and charter rates for very large crude carriers (VLCCs) are going through the roof. The Saudi promise to flood the market with oil and the price collapse it triggered have had traders scrambling to book VLCCs, each capable of transporting up to 2 million barrels of oil.  One reason for the high supertanker demand was Saudi Arabia’s increased bookings of tankers, on top of its own fleet, to transport extra 2.6 million bpd of its now super-cheap oil to all regions, as it aims to punish Russia by squeezing it out of key markets for refusing to back deeper production cuts. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has promised another 1 million bpd of supply to the market next month, as former allies OPEC and Russia are now locked in a battle for market share. The shipping market feels that there will be a supertanker supply crunch in the coming oil supply deluge, and VLCC rates are skyrocketing...MORE