Sal Mercogliano on tanker rates Gulf to China
by Jolyon: Saudi Arabia
Who absorbs the extra cost once the oil reaches a pump? That part stays open. What isn't open: moving crude from the Gulf to China has hit $1 MILLION a day for a charter, against $50,000 before. String twenty days of sailing together and one trip clears $20 million. Sal Mercogliano, a maritime historian and shipping analyst, points to a market desperate enough that a secondhand tanker changed hands for a figure above what a new one goes for. That desperation is why the escorted runs fall to state ships from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, whose governments swallow war risk insurance premiums private owners won't go near. And still the crude keeps moving.
