China-Bound Crude Shipments Seen Falling 13% This Week - Bloomberg

By Isaac Arnsdorf - 2012-06-01T10:56:12Z

Crude-oil shipments aboard supertankers bound for China fell 13 percent this week, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

Tankers with a total carrying capacity of about 15.8 million deadweight tons are heading for the Asian nation, down from 18.1 million tons last week. About 12 percent of the fleet of the largest oil tankers signaling future destinations is bound for China, the world’s biggest energy consumer. The ships would haul about 115.6 million barrels of oil, assuming a conversion factor of 7.33 barrels a ton.

The following table shows the destinations and combined carrying capacity in deadweight tons of 418 very large crude carriers, out of a global fleet of 559, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Average drafts are expressed as a percentage of maximum sailing depth and are an indication of cargo size. Each country’s percentage share of total oil shipments is shown for the current and previous weeks.

  Destination          Capacity     Draft    Share      Last Share                                             (June 1)   (May 25)  United Arab Emirates 23,935,740   55       18.9       20.5  China                15,769,706   89       12.4       14.6  Singapore            14,929,057   65       11.8       10.3  U.S.                 8,608,438    92       6.8        7.4  Japan                8,391,918    86       6.6        7.9  South Korea          8,251,572    83       6.5        5.2  Angola               6,109,394    55       4.8        3.9  Saudi Arabia         5,465,037    50       4.3        4.8  India                3,926,147    91       3.1        2.9  Iraq                 2,458,733    50       1.9        1.2  Taiwan               2,359,448    89       1.9        2.7  Kuwait               2,125,125    51       1.7        2.2  Iran                 2,107,111    51       1.7        0.5  Egypt                2,065,790    90       1.6        1.9  Qatar                1,789,527    57       1.4        1.7  Oman                 1,540,286    50       1.2        1.2  Thailand             1,534,384    86       1.2        0.7  Netherlands          1,526,057    96       1.2        0.7  Venezuela            884,787      51       0.7        0.7  Nigeria              870,954      50       0.7        0.7  Brazil               607,869      77       0.5        0.5  Malaysia             570,395      74       0.4        0.0  Other                11,033,909   67       8.7        7.6  Total                126,861,384  

To contact the reporter on this story: Isaac Arnsdorf in London at iarnsdorf@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Alaric Nightingale at anightingal1@bloomberg.net