World Tanker Fleet and Expected New Building (22796 bytes)
World Tanker Demolition (13872 bytes)
Oil majors worldwide are increasingly pulling out of oil tanker ownership.
Meantime, oil companies are insisting on higher standards of safety and environmental protection by tanker operators.
Those are the views of Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd., London, which says the oil tanker industry is going through a positive change as it tries to improve its spill record.
The analyst sees the tanker industry's bid to clean up its act as a reflection of the fact that newspaper coverage of tanker accidents sometimes crowds reports of wars and politics off the front pages.
"The environment of shipping is changing," Drewry said. "It is an opportunity for innovative companies to set the course and prosper by investing in quality. Charterers will have to pay for this, while the insurance industry must identify owners who are investing in preventive measures."
The U.S. Oil Pollution Act of 1990 is the key to tanker owners' improvements in their fleets and operations (OGJ, Oct. 18, 1994, p. 21).
Further pressure on vessel operators is expected to come from the requirement to have a certificate of financial responsibility, proving owners have a bank guarantee to pay $300-400 million to cover any spill cleanup required in U.S. waters.
Construction outlook
Coupled with rising safety and environmental standards, Drewry identifies expected rising oil demand as a major influence on tanker building for the next 10 years.
It said, "There will be a substantial increase in new order levels through the second half of the 1990, focused largely on very large crude carrier (VLCC) tonnage.
"The development predicted is for increased oil demand, especially in Southeast Asia, in a climate of strong economic growth. Increased demand for VLCCs is seen from 1995/96 onward, with greater reliance on long haul supplies."
Drewry maintains that scrapping is the key to the tanker supply/demand balance. About 57% of the 1994 VLCC fleet is expected to be scrapped by the end of 2003. In the short term, building is expected to exceed scrapping (see tables).
A report in Lloyd's Shipping Economist magazine concluded that deep sea tanker ownership by U.S. oil majors has declined by almost 25% in the last 2 years.
Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. continue their commitment to owning major tanker fleets, while Exxon Corp. has slowly reduced its world fleet, and Texaco Inc. is cutting its oil shipping interests to a minimum.
In Europe, by contrast, Shell Transport & Trading Co. has maintained its level of tanker ownership, while British Petroleum Co. plc increased its dependence on use of its own tankers.
BP reduced its dependence on spot chartering and increased its carrying of BP cargoes from 10% at the end of 1980 to 30%, with a medium term goal of boosting this level to 50%. n
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