KUALA LUMPUR: MISC Bhd is eyeing a recovery next year on expects that the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) will raise production quotas in tandem with rising global consumption. The management is cautiously optimistic on petroleum tanker rates, which have doubled year-on-year (y-o-y) to US$11,000 (RM46,337.50) per day for Suezmax and risen 76% y-o-y to US$8,800 (RM37,070) a day for Aframax. However, very large crude carriers’ (VLCC) rates remained depressed, halving y-o-y at only US$6,700 (RM28,223.75) a day. In a recent report, AmInvestment Bank said it expects modest improvement to petroleum tanker rates as Opec+ plans to raise production levels by two million barrels from August to December 2021 amid the winter season, which is usually the peak tanker cycle. FPSO tenders currently appear to be single-bidder propositions given the limited number of financially viable operators.

Source: The Star December 13, 2021 12:15 UTC