The Iran War Has Turned VLCCs Into $650,000-a-Day Assets
Now It May Help Break It Apart Julianne Geiger is a veteran energy journalist and market analyst with more than a decade of experience covering the global oil and gas sector.
Earnings on the benchmark Saudi Arabia-to-China supertanker route surged to a record $647,000 per day on Thursday, according to Baltic Exchange data cited by Bloomberg.
That is more than ten times the rate a year ago—and nearly 27% above the$510,000reached just ten days earlier.
The spike comes as Persian Gulf producers increase crude shipments through the Strait of Hormuz despite the continuing Iran war.
That should, in theory, ease the oil supply crunch.
Instead, it has created another one: ships.
Few tanker owners are willing to send vessels through Hormuz, leaving exporters competing for the smaller pool that will take the risk.
The result is an extraordinary premium for anyone willing to make the trip.
And crossing Hormuz is increasingly only the first leg.
Producers have begun shuttling crude through the strait before transferring cargoes onto other tankers outside the Gulf.
That effectively creates two freight bills—one for getting the oil through Hormuz and another for hauling it onward to Asia.
TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne said earlier this week that moving a cargo through Hormuz cost about $20 million.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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