China’s Unipec continues to be the dominant dirty tanker spot charterer in the first half of the year, according to Poten & Partners. The Chinese oil giant accounted for 13.8% of all fixtures registered in the sector in the first six months – the next largest player, Shell, was a long way behind with just 4.9%.
The top seven charterers are exactly the same as last year.
In the VLCC segment, Unipec continues to be the dominant spot charterer with 258 reported fixtures, equivalent to the volume of the next five largest combined.
In the suezmax segment the traditional oil majors still rule, with all the majors that are remaining of the original ‘Seven Sisters’ (Chevron, Shell, BP and ExxonMobil) represented in the top 10.
Chevron continues to lead the pack, followed by Repsol and Unipec.
International oil traders are the best represented in the aframax segment.
Vitol maintains the lead, while second placed ST Shipping has moved up the ranks (up from 5th in 2015).
“These rankings serve as a reminder for tanker owners that, despite all the changes in the world’s economic and political landscape, changes in the oil market take time and long-term trends remain in place. No surprises here,” Poten said in a weekly report.
Unipec has dominated the Poten statistics since 2012.
