Annual tanker chartering poll highlights fast-changing oil seaborne trades

The changing oil seaborne trades are evident in Poten & Partners’ just released annual list of the top dirty spot charterers, statistics that highlight China’s softening economy in 2024 as well as the search for non-pipelined oil from Russia from erstwhile trading partners. 

China’s Unipec remained the dominant dirty spot charterer in 2024, although the number of fixtures it concluded dropped for  the second year running. Two other Chinese charterers, Sinochem and PetroChina, dropped out of the top 10 VLCC charterer list.

Another notable change was the entry of Polish charterer PKN Orlen in the top 20 at number 16 for the first time as it diversifies its crude oil supplies away from pipelined Russian barrels to seaborne crude from the Middle East and the North Sea, among others. 

In the suezmax segment, ExxonMobil claimed the number one spot, followed by Repsol. Total re-entered the top 10 at number three. 

The aframax segment showed significant changes. Chevron moved up two places to top spot while last year’s number one, Vitol, dropped to 10th. SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan entered the list at number three, followed by another new entrant, Poland’s PKN Orlen at number four.