The fuel efficient vessels in lower bunker price environments
According to Poten & Partners, everyone in the tanker industry is aware of the recent drop in crude oil prices and the decline in bunker fuel prices that followed. Bunker fuel is the single most expensive cost in operating tankers, so this is a welcome relief for ship owners. The cost of Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) in Fujairah has declined to a current price of $460 per metric ton from an average of $609/MT over the first six month of the year, a reduction of 24%. Due to the high oil prices over the last couple of years and the anticipation of continuing high prices in the future, owners have made operational adjustments by utilizing slow steaming on the ballast leg of a voyage, while shipyards and engine manufacturers have worked hard to improve the fuel efficiency of new ships. In this Weekly Opinion piece, we will examine the impact of these in the current fuel price environment. Using a VLCC as the basis for such analysis as the longer voyages benefit relatively more from fuel efficiency, we use a 2007 built VLCC ordered when HFO prices were around $160/MT and a modern 2013 built VLCC. Vessels can vary significantly ...
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