Aframax rates took a tumble on Tuesday and are expected to fall further as Libya warned of a wave of closures on oil exports.
The Baltic Exchange assessed aframax time charter equivalent rates at $82,067 per day, a single-session drop of $5,172 that continued a slide that started on 12 April, when rates were at $90,537 per day.
On Sunday, Reuters reported Libya’s National Oil Co halted production at its El Feel oil field before warning on Monday that it could no longer fulfil contractual obligations for deliveries from its Zueitina terminal or its Al Sharara oil field.
“With force majeure declared over the weekend for the majority of Libyan ports, we expect rates to be tested lower in the coming days,” Howe Robinson said of aframax rates in its daily report.
The shipbroker said an aframax on a cross-Mediterranean voyage would earn $62,981 per day on Monday, down $2,356 from $65,337 per day on 14 April, the last assessment before the long Easter weekend.
Overall, tanker rates continued to cool, with little activity in the market.
The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index fell 34 points on Tuesday to 1,680.
Howe Robinson said the market for VLCCs and suezmaxes both got off to a slow start in the new week after rates slipped last week for the same reason.
The firm said the slow start for VLCCs was expected as charterers were “seemingly testing the water for the start of the may [Middle East Gulf] programme without too much commitment”.
Suezmaxes saw similar sluggishness.
“A quiet start to the week after the Easter break comes as a little surprise but the suezmax market is taking a breath,” Howe Robinson said.
“A lot was covered in a very active two weeks before Easter and the market still looks [in] balance just not quite as balanced as last week.”
The broker said it expected suezmax rates to dip both out of West Africa and in the Black Sea-Mediterranean as the market continues to balance.
