The cost of transporting gasoline and other fuels on ocean tankers is soaring days after sanctions targeting Russian oil sales.
Daily earnings for relatively small tankers delivering refined fuels across the Atlantic Ocean rose about 280% this week to $41,968, according to the latest data from London’s Baltic Stock Exchange. They surged 58% on Thursday alone, the biggest one-day gain since late 2021.
The increase has been spurred in part by a bifurcation of the fleet with some tankers serving Moscow’s interests and others in the international market. It highlights a possible reversal of aggressive measures aimed at limiting Russia’s oil revenues.
“Russian volumes continue to flow more or less at the same rate and that takes up a lot of ships,” said Lars Bastian Ostereng, an analyst at Arctic Securities. “Ultimately, the increase shows that demand is quite good and the fundamentals are strong.”
Up to 600 ships have joined a “shadow fleet” of vessels helping Russia keep its oil flowing. This, in turn, is leaving fewer ships in the service of other oil exporters and is increasing the cost of transporting goods.
The increase is not solely about a change of tankers in the Russian trade.
The European Union banned fuel imports to Russia from February 5. Before that, the bloc lifted its purchases of refined products from elsewhere to ensure a plentiful supply, displacing some ships from an already stretched fleet.
Now, as buying increases elsewhere, rates rise. Ships sailing from Europe to West Africa posted their biggest daily gain since figures began to be published last year on Thursday.
However, a shift of some tankers to Russia may contribute.
“What we’re hearing is that suddenly a lot of ships were taken off the tonnage lists and headed to Russia,” said Eirik Haavaldsen, a shipping analyst at Pareto Securities AS in Oslo. “So all of a sudden the ship supply almost ran out yesterday.”
