Russian Lukoil dropped out of the top 10 tanker charterers

The russian oil company “Lukoil” was removed from the list of the world’s largest charterers of tankers due to sanctions.

“Purchases and/or shipments of russian oil have become ambiguous against the background of sanctions against this country. This has led to a change in the chartering market. In general, this was expressed in a sharp change in global trade flows,” said the report of the consulting and brokerage company Poten & Partners.

According to the results of 2022, the Chinese gas and chemical company Unipec became the largest charterer of large-tonnage tankers.

ExxonMobil is in second place, Shell is in third place. At the same time, Equinor dropped out of the top 10, but SK Corp entered.

In the Suezmax segment, Total rose to the top spot from 9th place, while ExxonMobil moved from 7th to 2nd place. The russian charterer “Lukoil” dropped out of the top ten, giving way to the Indian IOC.

In the Aframax segment, Shell became the leader in the number of deals on the spot market in 2022. In second place is Vitol, in third place is bp. In turn, Lukoil and Aramco were not included in this list, PTT and Phillips are newcomers to the top of charterers.

In general, the number of registered transactions on the spot market in 2022 decreased by 8% compared to 2021.

Demand for tankers will remain strong this year, Poten & Partners predicts, as the biggest global oil buyers build up inventories.