Low-sulphur costs drop to old standard bunker levels as oil prices plunge
Time：2014-12-10
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Cleaner marine gas oil was trading at US$615 per tonne, the same price heavy fuel oil was when carriers were calculating surcharges on low-sulphur fuel reckoned to cost 50 per cent more than standard bunker.
The price of Rotterdam-sourced intermediate fuel oil IFO380 bunker fell another US$14 per tonne in a single day, following a $28 plunge on Friday, to hit a new five-year low of $365 per tonne.
Bunker prices have fallen by $80 per tonne in the past month, and by more than 30 per cent since the summer, to provide ocean carriers with significant cost savings reported London`s Loadstar.
Carriers paid an average of $575 per tonne for heavy fuel oil during the period. Even with slow-steaming, the biggest containerships burn 100 tonnes a day, and the difference in price will have big impact of carriers earnings.
Oil prices are in free fall after the OPEC meeting in Vienna failed to reach an agreement to cut output to combat sluggish global demand and rising US production, said the report.
Many OPEC nations need the price to be at least $80 per barrel to meet domestic budgets. The 15 OPEC nations are engaged in a stand-off with US suppliers where oil companies have successfully used fracking to extract oil from shale formations in North Dakota and Texas, adding around four million barrels of crude oil a day to the global market estimate of around 75 million barrels daily.