December 02, 2008

Refinery investments to result in boom for tankers - Report

According to analysis of project data carried out by Dubai based research company Proleads, the 6 Gulf Cooperation Council countries, flush with cash from years of high oil prices, are investing more than USD 122 billion in new refinery projects to meet rising demand and tighter specifications for products. This investment has resulted in a boom in orders for new supertankers and chemical product carriers, in particular.

Mr Chris Hayman CMD of Seatrade, organizer of Middle East Money & Ships, said that “These are staggering figures. Once completed, these GCC projects alone will have total capacity to produce the equivalent of six million barrels a day of petrochemicals.”

Mr Sharafuddin Sharaf president of the UAE ship owners association and VC of the Sharaf Group will be addressing the scope of the shipping business in the UAE, in terms of volume and scale and its contribution to the UAE economy.

BRS, an independent broker in the international market and a participant at Money & Ships, estimates 184 supertankers are currently on order worldwide for delivery between now and 2012. BRS said that “Supertankers, in this case, refers to ships of 200,000 tonnes or over and capable of transporting 2 to 3 million barrels of oil. Put into perspective, the combined oil consumption of Spain and the UK is about 3.2 million barrels of oil a day. The global order book is even greater for petrochemical product and chemical tankers, with a staggering 1,560 such vessels due for delivery between now and 2012.”

Underscoring the surge in shipbuilding orders, recently estimated the world shipping loan book had grown by over a third, from USD 200 billion in 2005 to USD 275 billion in 2007.