Platts Commodity News: Shell Top Charterer of Dirty Tankers in 2009

“Oil major Shell maintained its position as top spot charterer of dirty tankers in 2009, but Asian refiners dominated the list as top 10 VLCC charterers in a year that witnessed a meltdown of the commodity markets, a research report by ship brokers Poten & Partners has shown. With 691 fixtures across the dirty tanker segments in 2009, Shell bettered its 2008 showing which had 686 fixtures to its credit. Following Shell was BP with 544 fixtures and Total with 460 fixtures, according to the Poten report . . . . The most interesting finding of the report was that the Asian charterers dominated the very large crude carrier market as top charterers of these supertankers. ‘The fact that all but two of the top ten VLCC charterers for 2009 are Asian based companies speaks to the central role that developing nations of that region have played in supporting ton-mile demand this year,’ the Poten report said.”