Lloyd’s List: Unipec Ranks as World’s Biggest Dirty Tanker Charterer

12 Jan 2016: “Shell ranks number two; Indian Oil jumps to fourth place up from 10th CHINA’S state-run Unipec emerged as the world’s top charterer taking ships in the spot market for dirty tankers in 2015, according to rankings by US brokerage and consultancy Poten & Partners. “Unipec, also known as China International United Petroleum & Chemicals, is China’s largest international oil and gas trading company. It cornered 13.4% of the market with a total of 809 spot fixtures, Poten said in a weekend report. “Unipec, which led the rankings in 2014, is unlikely to lose the top spot any time soon, despite slowing oil demand growth in China. The second-largest charterer, Royal Dutch Shell, lagged far behind with 4.9% of the market. “Some significant moves on the list included state-run oil company Indian Oil Corp that jumped to fourth place from10th place in 2014, the international trading arm of Lukoil Oil — Litasco — that rose to eighth place from 11, and Saudi Arabian shipping major Bahri that rose to 12th place from 23. “Other oil majors like ExxonMobil and BP dropped in rankings, while commodity trader Trafigura was a new entrant at 17th place, Poten said. “The very large crude carrier segment was also dominated by Unipec, while the suezmax segment saw Chevron as the largest spot charterer and oil trader Vitol was the top aframax charterer. “Poten’s rankings are derived from market intelligence and reported spot market activity, and may not provide a complete picture of the market.”