In a sign that comparatively normal – and more transparent - clean tanker activity may possibly be starting to return to the Middle East Gulf, a number of naphtha cargoes have been reported by shipbrokers as fixed to load in the region during the 1H of July. Three 55 KMT LR1 cargoes have recently been reported fixed to load from the Mideast Gulf, for loading around July 5, 8 and 11 dates, all fixed basis discharging in Japan by Saudi Aramco. One of the fixtures specified the vessel as loading “inside” the MEG, compared with the recent busy naphtha loading activity from offshore Sohar, outside the Gulf itself. Such reported spot fixtures have come to a halt since the Hormuz crisis began.
Spot freight rates have been reported for two of the three fixtures and are considerably higher than recently reported fixtures for similar sized naphtha stems but for loading outside the MEG: the Yamilah-III is reported fixed at Worldscale 425, the Nautilus at WS 375, while fixtures for other 55 KMT naphtha stems but loading from Sohar and Yanbu have been reported concluded at WS 200 and 250 respectively.
