The EU is again the largest importer of crude oil by sea. As a result, the reshaping of the crude oil trades and the ban on Russian oil, is expected to play a major role in the future of the tanker freight markets moving forward. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “2021 was a very negative year for crude oil trade. Total loadings in the whole 12 months of 2021 were down -4.4% yo-y to 1,887 mln tonnes, excluding all cabotage trade, according to vessels tracking data from Refinitiv. This follows an even more dramatic -6.5% y-o-y decline in 2020. However, things have turned around quite spectacularly in 2022, despite the surging oil prices and risks of economic recession”.
According to Banchero Costa, “in the first half of 2022, global crude oil loadings were up +11.4% y-o-y at 1029 mln tonnes, well above the 924 mln tonnes in Jan-Jun 2021, and marginally above the 1028 mln tonnes in the same period of 2020. Exports from Saudi Arabia are up +19.2% y-o-y to 169.7 mln tonnes in Jan-Jun 2022, almost back to preCovid levels. Seaborne shipments from Russia are also, perhaps surprisingly, up by +16.9% y-o-y to 112.8 mln tonnes in the same period, also essentially back to pre-Covid levels.
Source: banchero costa &c s.p.a
Exports from the USA have surged by a further +13.2% y-o-y to all time records of 74.2 mln tonnes. However, some suppliers such as Nigeria and Libya are still struggling with supply issues. Shipments from Nigeria are down by -6.3% y-o-y to a low of 35.1 mln t in the first half of 2022, well below 2018 levels of 47.3 mln tonnes. From Libya, exports are also down by -21.1% y-o-y to 20.2 mln tonnes in Jan-Jun 2022, from 25.6 mln tonnes in the same period of 2021”.
The shipbroker noted that “the European Union has now once again emerged as the world’s largest seaborne importer of crude oil, after having been briefly overtaken by China in 2019-2021. In 2021, Europe performed relatively better than other regions, although this mostly reflects a bounce back from being one of the worst performing ones in 2020… The lockdowns taking place in most of the continent had a devastating impact on the economy, and obviously on the demand for crude oil imports. In the 12 months of 2020, the 27 countries of the European Union imported 388.8 mln tonnes of crude oil by sea, according to Refinitiv vessel tracking data. This represented a net decline of -12.8% y-o-y, compared to the 446.0 mln tonnes imported in 2019. In the 12 months of 2021, seaborne imports into the EU recovered somewhat by +3.5% y-o-y to 402.5 mln tonnes. This however was still well below pre-Covid times. In the first six months of 2022, the EU imported 223.0 mln tonnes of seaborne crude oil, up +15.3% y-o-y from 193.4 mln tonnes in the same period of 2021”.
Source: banchero costa &c s.p.a
“In terms of sources of the shipments, there has been understandably a bit of politically driven reshuffling. Seaborne imports from Russia, perhaps surprisingly, still managed to increase by +5.5% y-o-y in Jan-Jun 2022 to 59.6 mln tonnes, from 56.4 mln tonnes in Jan-Jun 2021, and just marginally below the 60.6 mln tonnes of Jan-Jun 2020. Russia remains the top supplier of seaborne oil to the EU, accounting for 26.7% of volumes in the first half of 2022, ahead of the North Sea with 17.1% and North Africa with 14.6%. Shipments from the North Sea (Norway and UK) were up +27.1% yo-y to 38.2 mln tonnes, well above the 27.8 mln tonnes of Jan-Jun 2019. Imports from North Africa (including from Sidi Kerir) were up by +6.1% yo-y to 32.6 mln tonnes, despite a -14.5% y-o-y decline from Libya. Shipments from Turkey (Ceyhan) were also up by +1.4% y-o-y to 17.4 mln tonnes, above the 17.2 mln tonnes of Jan-Jun 2019. Shipments from West Africa to Europe were up by +33.3% y-o-y to 24.0 mln tonnes in Jan-Jun 2022. Imports from the USA surged by +57.5% y-o-y to a new all time record of 24.6 mln t in Jan-Jun 2022. Direct shipments from the Arabian Gulf also rebounded sharply by +31.3% y-o-y to 11.7 mln tonnes, but were still down by half compared to the 22.2 mln tonnes in Jan-Jun 2019”, Banchero Costa concluded.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide
