Fuel shortage in Asia 720,000 barrels per day

TRANSPORT: Exxon Mobil Corp, the world’s biggest oil company by market value, and Royal Dutch Shell Group’s Asian oil trading unit are hiring one tanker each to ship fuel oil from Saudi Arabia to the Far East, a shipbroker said.

Exxon will hire the tanker Pacific Apollo to load 80,000 tonnes of fuel oil from Yanbu in Saudi Arabia on Aug 9 to the Far East at the rate of Worldscale 140, Seatown Shipbroking in Singapore said in its report. The double-hulled tanker, built this year, was on its way to Singapore as of 15 July, according to Bloomberg data.

Shell International Eastern Trading Co, known as Sietco, will also be hiring a tanker to load 80,000 tonnes of fuel oil in the Persian Gulf on Aug 8 and transport it to the Far East at the rate of Worldscale 135, the broker said. It has yet to name the vessel.

The charter rates of both companies are higher than the Worldscale 130.58 rate for shipping 80,000 tonnes of oil to Singapore from Kuwait quoted on the London-based Baltic Exchange on July 20.

Fuel oil shortage in Asia is estimated at around 720,000 barrels per day this year, Vienna-based PVM Oil Associates GmbH said in a report.

China and Japan are the two countries in the region with the biggest demand for fuel oil, it said.