Sameer Mohindru

Supertankers time-chartered by Japan's oil refiners are facing a challenging situation, changing the basic mechanism of crude trade by doing ship-to-ship, or STS, transfer in Malaysia, even as some of them are partially idle due to disruption at the Strait of Hormuz, while others are tapping the US market, several tanker brokers, owners and charterers told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, June 9.

The Asian naphtha crack fell to its lowest level in two years as weak petrochemical demand combined with improving cargo flows from the Middle East put pressure on an already oversupplied market, according to market sources on June 5.

The Additional War Risk Premium for moving tankers across the Persian Gulf eased in the week ended March 27 as more ships crossed the risky waters of the Strait of Hormuz amid hopes that an agreement may eventually be reached to end the war in the Middle East, market participants said March 27.