A shortage of available oil supertankers is constraining US crude exports, prompting shippers to hire smaller vessels an | Hanami
A shortage of available oil supertankers is constraining US crude exports, prompting shippers to hire smaller vessels and direct more cargoes to Europe, according to the head of the largest US port.
For the first time in four years, not a single very large crude carrier, or VLCC, entered the US Gulf of Mexico to collect an oil cargo last week, Port of Corpus Christi Chief Executive Officer Kent Britton said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Thursday.
The supertanker market has been in disarray since the US-Iran conflict stranded scores of vessels around the Persian Gulf and prompted others to sail circuitous routes to avoid the war zone. With so many of the 2 million barrel-capacity ships charting longer journeys, fewer are available for hire. #oott https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-11-12/oil-supertanker-squeeze-is-crimping-us-crude-exports-texas-port-ceo-says