Vlcc how many barrels

Gulf and Singapore, where major oil hubs are situated. The crude market is currently trading in what is known as contango, where forward prices are higher than immediate prices. This market structure encourages traders to park barrels in storage in the hopes of selling them for a profit later.

There are over VLCCs in the world and analysts have estimated as many as to supertankers could be deployed for floating storage in coming months. The inside of the hull is usually divided into 17 tanks, and the ship can load multiple grades of crude oil at the same time without mixing.

For loading and discharging operations, the ship tanks and the shore tanks are connected by pipelines and hoses. Usually, The VLCCs have three cargo pumps, and each pump can discharge about 35, barrels [5, cubic meters] of crude oil per hour. Then, an Olympic-sized pool [50x25x2 meters] of crude oil can pump up in less than 30 minutes. Double hull structure: Cargo tanks green part protected by double skin.

The main engine of the VLCC, which generates the propulsion power of the ship, is a two-cycle diesel engine with six or seven cylinders.

It is a huge structure not comparable with engines of automobiles or trucks. The pistons have millimeters diameter [bore], and the stroke exceeds 3 meters. The engine displacement is more than 10, liters with a maximum output of 38, horsepower and revolves the propeller 70 to 80 times per minute.

Then the VLCC can navigate about 15 knots [28 kilometers per hour] at sea. Since the VLCC was first introduced in the s to improve transport efficiency by upsizing tankers, the typical specifications of VLCCs have been established over the past 50 years. The world's largest merchant ship, Knock Nevis, delivered in , was meters in length and 69 meters in width and was able to load more than 4 million barrels of crude oil, doubled the capacity of a typical VLCC.

However, due to their extraordinary size, these ULCCs could call only limited ports and could not pass through narrow and shallow channels like the Strait of Malacca, which made their operation less efficient in reality. It seems that bigger is not always better, but that each ship type has its optimal size, and there is a practical limitation for upsizing.

Writer: Takahiro. Joined the company in A man in his 50s has experienced in dry bulk shipping, crude oil and petroleum product tanker shipping, and fuel oil procurement for our operated ships before he transferred to market research. From a peak of around million barrels last June, the total volume of crude in floating storage have declined to 87 million barrels in June , according to data intelligence firm, Kpler.

Floating storage requirements and fewer newbuilding orders have given many older tankers a new lease on life. For most of , the daily earnings of VLCC owners from their ships have been perilously close to zero.

The substantial amount of revenue generated in along with the hope of a strong post-COVID recovery are holding back owners from demolishing their old ships despite the strong demolition prices. Some of the old ships are allegedly being used in the trading of sanctioned oil, industry sources said.

The shipbroker thinks the actual number could be higher with some vessels recently sold yet to perform the illicit activity. For the crude tanker market to witness a strong recovery in the medium term, it is imperative that older and inefficient ships be torched without further delay.

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