Hellenic Shipping News: Product Tankers Could Actually Benefit From Brexit

5 July 2016: “In one recent report, shipbroker Poten & Partners noted that, actually, product tankers could be among the segments which can benefit from the Brexit. According to Poten, the exit of the UK from the EU could have an impact on the tanker market, in terms of the movement of oil products between the two. Poten said that the exports from the UK to countries in the EU are slowly trending down, primarily as a result of the decline in crude oil production and exports. “Poten said that ‘in the first quarter of 2005, Great Britain exported 7.8 million tons of crude oil (equivalent to some 650,000 barrels per day) to other EU countries, representing 69% of total exports by volume. By the first quarter of 2016, crude oil exports were down to 5.1 million tons (422,000 barrels per day). Not only has the volume been reduced, the market share of crude oil Tankers Br(exit) Strategy has also shrank to 58%. Clean petroleum products, in particular gasoline and diesel, have gradually become a larger portion of UK exports’. According to the US-based shipbroker, in 2015, the UK sent about 66% of its crude oil and petroleum product exports to countries in the EU, with only 34% going to other countries. Looking at UK imports from the EU, the picture is different. ‘Since the UK does not import material volumes of crude oil from other EU countries, it is products (in particular middle distillates) that dominate the import picture. In Q1 of 2016, the UK imported 2.2 million tons (190,000 barrels per day) of middle distillates from the EU. This represented 62% of total petroleum imports from the EU. In 2015, the EU supplied 46% of the oil products imported into the UK. Given the short-haul nature of the UK – EU crude oil and product trades, any changes in trade-flows as a result of ‘Brexit’ could be positive for tonmile demand, in particular for product carriers’, Poten concluded.”