He’s Back!

Nov 8th, 2024:What to expect in President Trump’s second term? If everything goes according to plan, Donald Trump will be inaugurated on January 20, 2025 as the 47th President of the United States. After a remarkable comeback, the Republican nominee won a convincing victory in Tuesday’s presidential election. The republican party also regained control of the U.S. Senate. At the time of writing the majority in the House of Representatives is not yet decided, although the Republican party is leading. The questions on everybody’s mind are the same: What will a second term of Donald Trump look like? How will his policies impact the oil and tanker markets? What will be the geopolitical implications? Obviously, nobody knows the answers to these questions, but based on what happened during Mr. Trump’s first term in office and considering what he said on the campaign trail, there are a number of focus areas that are relevant to our industry. In this Tanker Opinion, we will discuss two of them: (1) increased focus on U.S. crude oil production and (2) tightening of sanctions against Iran. Other topics, such as Russia/Ukraine war and the potential impact of tariffs may be discussed in future Opinions.