Riviera Maritime Media: Polish charterer making waves in seaborne energy transport

March 18, 2025

Tanker chartering is a business defined by continuity. Each year, the industry’s ranking of the largest spot charterers remains broadly unchanged, with the same major players — trading houses, oil majors, and national oil companies — dominating the landscape. The latest data from Poten & Partners’ 2024 charterer rankings largely confirms this trend.

For the first time, Orlen entered Poten’s top 20 dirty spot charterers in 2024, ranking at number 16, with 150 dirty spot fixtures. Compared to Unipec’s 805 similar fixtures it seems rather small, but this development marks a fundamental change in the company’s approach to crude oil sourcing, prompted by geopolitical pressures and strategic realignment. Historically reliant on pipeline crude imports from Russia, PKN Orlen has aggressively diversified its procurement strategy in response to shifting energy dynamics. The company has increasingly turned to seaborne crude oil imports from the North Sea and the Middle East, leading to a surge in its tanker chartering activity. In 2024 alone, Orlen fixed an estimated 16M tonnes of crude oil cargoes on the spot market, securing its position as a key participant in global shipping markets.

To read the full article, please click here.