62
39
th
Annual Report
3-2-3 Fuel Oil Prices
Fuel oil prices went up in 2012 in all markets. In the Singapore
market the average price rose by 2.7% to $105.4/b, in the US market
it increased by about 5.3% to $105.3/b, in Rotterdam market the
average price of fuel oil went up by 4.6% above 2011 to $105/b,
while price in the Mediterranean market averaged $103.8/b, which
was 2.6%, higher than previous year.
3-3 Oil Freight Rates
Crude oil freight rates in all routes witnessed a sharp decline
in 2012 compared with their 2011 levels for several reasons, most
important of which was the economic slowdown. In addition to
that some of non-OPEC countries, especially the United States,
experienced an increase in domestic oil production which resulted in
lower oil imports and thus a decrease in the demand for tankers. The
level of utilizing the global tanker fleet decreased to 80% during the
third quarter of the year, which is the lowest since 1999.
The average rate for oil shipments from Arabian Gulf ports to the
East on VLCCs (230,000-280,000 dead weight tonne) was 48 points
on the World Scale (WS)
1
. This was 5 points, or 9%, lower than in
2011.
Freight rates for shipments from Arabian Gulf ports to the West,
on crude carriers with a capacity of 270,000-285,000 dead weight
tonnes, averaged 33 WS points, which was 6 points, or about 15.4%,
lower than in 2011, as shown in
Table (1-13)
.
(1) World Scale is a method for calculating freight prices. One point on the WS means
1% of the standard price for the freight to that direction in the WS book, which is pub-
lished annually by the world scale association. It contains a list of prices in the form of
dollars per tonne, called “World Scale 100” for all the major routes in the world.
