Saudi Arabia’s national shipping carrier Bahri has provisionally chartered at least five very large crude carriers to transport oil from the Middle East to Asia, as supertanker booking costs soar to levels not seen in six years.
Record-Breaking Charter Activity
Two of the hires were reported on a booking tracker run by Tankers International, while two more appeared in fixture reports from brokers. A fifth charter was confirmed by industry sources with direct knowledge of the deal. The five VLCCs are expected to transport crude from the region to Asian markets in the coming weeks.
The cost of hauling two million barrels of crude from the Middle East to China on Tuesday approached $200,000 a day for the first time since 2020, according to data from the Baltic Exchange in London. One of the ships Bahri chartered, DHT Jaguar, was booked at the equivalent of $208,000 a day, Tankers International data showed.
Why It Matters for Saudi Arabia
The oil market closely watches Bahri’s activities for signals about Saudi crude flows. Shipping companies typically only hire additional vessels when their own fleet cannot handle current cargo volumes, suggesting that the Kingdom’s oil shipments are on the rise.
Saudi Arabia plans to ship roughly eight million barrels of additional crude to China next month after cutting its official selling prices to the lowest level in five years. The Kingdom has also recently begun selling oil from its massive Jafurah natural gas project, which produces a type of extra-light oil called condensate and is expected to free up domestic crude supplies for export.
Surging Global Tanker Demand
Benchmark supertanker earnings have climbed to multi-year highs, driven in part by a South Korean owner snapping up tankers in the spot market. Geopolitical tensions have also contributed to the surge, as traders assess the potential impact of conflict between the United States and Iran on oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil travels daily.
Middle East crude exports in February exceeded 19 million barrels per day, the highest since April 2020, according to Kpler data. Bahri has not chartered this many ships in nearly six months, highlighting the scale of the current demand cycle.
