Global Shortage of Oil Tankers Leads to Unconventional Cargo Choices
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A global shortage of oil tankers has led to newly built ships loading crude oil directly on their maiden voyages, despite typically being dedicated to transporting refined fuel, according to a report by Bloomberg.
Tracking data and contracts analyzed by Bloomberg and Signal Ocean show that six supertankers delivered this year have sailed empty from East Asia to the Middle East, Africa, or the Americas to load crude oil, compared to only one instance recorded last year.
Normally, owners of new tankers first use them to transport gasoline, diesel, and other refined products (known as "clean" products), as this does not require the complex cleaning operations needed for crude oil transport. Additionally, most of these ships are built in East Asia, which imports crude oil and exports refined fuel.
However, the severe shortage of tankers has changed this rule, with the increase in oil production by OPEC and other countries over the past year. Western sanctions against Russia, as well as risks associated with passing through the Red Sea, have disrupted traditional maritime routes, resulting in longer voyages and a greater need for ships.
Smaller tankers have also been introduced into the crude oil trade, and some traders have been forced to split cargoes due to the lack of large vessels, increasing transportation costs.
The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index, which measures crude oil freight prices on 12 major routes, has surged by around 50% since late July last year.
Bloomberg cited Georgios Sakellaris, a ship chartering analyst at Signal Maritime, who stated that significant profits – such as $100,000 per day for supertankers and $80,000 for Suezmax vessels – are incentivizing companies to quickly capitalize on these returns before they change.
The supertanker "Aliakmon 1" was the first new ship to set sail empty this year. It left a northeastern Chinese shipyard without cargo in June last year, headed to Kuwait to load approximately two million barrels of crude, and then transported its cargo to South Korea in late November 2025.
