Oil giants top dirty tanker charter table

Michelle Wiese Bockmann - Wednesday 7 January 2009

SHELL, ExxonMobil and BP remained the world’s largest charterers of dirty tankers in 2008, responsible for 17% of all reported fixtures.
 
Analysis by New York-based Poten & Partners showed that the three oil giants were the charterers of just over 1,600 of around 5,400 spot fixtures for crude oil tanker transport. 

Shell and ExxonMobil charter in the “vast majority” of their transporation requirements, according to Megan McCurdy from Poten & Partners, who wrote the report, ‘Who Carried the Weight in 2008’. 

“Spot market exposure generally accounts for between 30%-40% of their total programs,” she said. 

The report analyses the top 20 charterers based on fixture reports in the spot market for very large crude carriers, suezmax, aframax and panamax tankers. 

A surprise entry to the list of top 10 global tanker charterers was state-owned Brazlian oil company, Petrobras, reflecting its expanding role in the global oil industry. 

Petrobras was behind 266 fixtures in 2008, compared to 153 in 2007, according to Poten data. It is now the second-largest charterer of suezmax tankers in the spot market. 

“Petrobras has increased both spot and time charter coverage, suggesting they are likely moving more volumes overall,” said Ms McCurdy. 

The 2008 list also reflected the growing dominance of state-owned oil companies, including China. 

PetroChina was the 16th-largest charterer of spot tanker tonnage, with 148 fixtures, and appeared on the list of top 20 charterers for the first time. 

Hurricane activity in the US Gulf which hit refining capacity was thought to be responsible for lower fixture activity from US-based refiner Valero. 

Sunoco, another major refiner, reported 33 fewer suezmax fixtures in 2008, Ms McCurdy said of the data.
“This could be indicative of a more conservative path on Sunoco’s part to utilise only the markets and routes which are providing the most profit, but it is pretty inconclusive,” she said. 

VLCC spot market activity was down 8% on 2007 levels, with Saudi Aramco’s tanker arm, Vela, falling from the list of top 10 charterers. 

Suezmax spot activity remained unchanged but there was an 8% increase in aframax spot fixtures, with an extra 300 spot fixtures reported. 

“The large increase in aframax movements came from 200-plus reported spot fixutre incrase in cross-Mediterranean movements,” Ms McCurday said. 

2008 Top Tanker Charterers
Charterer Fixtures
Shell 696
ExxonMobil 498
BP 444
CSSA (Total) 359
Clearlake 356
Vitol 344


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