Oil Supertanker Bookings Reach Highest Level This Year in July

Supertanker bookings for oil exports from the Middle East reached their highest monthly level this year in July, doubling shipping costs, as OPEC increased output.

Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Europe’s second-biggest oil company, led charterers that booked 119 supertankers to carry oil from the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea to refineries in the U.S., Asia and Europe, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The vessels, known as very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, can ship about 2 million barrels of oil each. Shell booked 10 tankers for single voyages, or so-called spot contracts, the data showed.

Shipping rates for voyages to Asia have doubled in the past three weeks after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps about 40 percent of the world’s oil, agreed to raise daily production quotas by 500,000 barrels to 28 million barrels last month. OPEC began raising quotas July 1 in a bid to lower record oil prices that threatened global economic growth.
Bloomberg