Asian refiners are increasingly looking to book smaller tankers to load oil from the Middle East as the freight costs for chartering supertankers have surged after Saudi Arabia pledged to boost oil supply to the market and is provisionally booking supertankers in addition to its own fleet. Malaysia’s state oil company Petronas has provisionally booked a Suezmax, capable of carrying 800,000 to one million barrels of oil, from the Middle East to Malaysia, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing ship brokers, traders, and fixtures. To compare, the supertankers, the so-called very large crude carriers (VLCCs), can transport up to 2 million barrels of oil. The rates for the VLCCs, however, have jumped five to ten times in one week after the Saudis snapped up supertankers to flood the world with oil next month, leaving fewer VLCCs available and resulting in a price spike for the daily charter rates. Some Indian […]