There's a Big Victim From OPEC's Oil Cuts
- Production curbs and tanker oversupply crush daily earnings
- Returns slumped 57 percent year-on-year in 2017, data show
Photographer: Stephane De Sakutin/AFP via Getty Images
This article is for subscribers only.
OPEC’s strategy to end a worldwide crude glut is causing havoc for a vital link in the oil industry’s supply chain: the fleet of supertankers that shuttle fuel between continents.
The ships’ average earnings plunged last year by more than half to levels not seen since 2009 and far below what shipping analysts had been predicting. Now, the producer group’s extension of output cuts throughout 2018 is adding to the downturn.