The tanker market has entered a new reality after last week’s new round of sanctions against Russian entities. In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Gibson said that “on Friday 10th January, the United States sanctioned Gazprom Neft and Surgutneftegaz, two key Russian insurers and 183 ships, including 156 tankers, sending shock waves through the oil and tanker markets. Crude prices have rallied on concerns of potential oil supply disruptions, greater volatility has also been witnessed in a number of crude and product arbs. Spot crude and product freight across all markets firmed, with exception of most Aframax trades”.

According to Gibson, “unquestionably, the latest OFAC sanctions target a significant share of Russian export capacity. For Suezmaxes and Aframaxes/LR2s, we are talking about 1.4 mbd of export capacity, assuming an Ust Luga/West Coast India run. To put this into perspective, Russia’s seaborne crude exports averaged 3.35mbd last year and product exports reached 2.44mbd. The bigger picture is that now around half of the existing VLCC, Suezmax and Aframax/LR2 dark fleet (that trades only Russian and/or sanctioned Iranian/Venezuelan) is now…