Lifting US sanctions on dark fleet tankers will not end the tanker crunch, analysts tell The National

Analysts told The National that the US decision to authorise sales of sanctioned tankers so they can carry crude legitimately is unlikely to resolve the tanker shortage linked to the Iran war. Salih Yilmaz of Bloomberg Intelligence said it could bring some relief around the Arabian Gulf, but would mostly move ships already working in Russian, Iranian or other restricted trades, and that the risk of sailing near Hormuz was the bigger constraint. Wanying Zhang of Vortexa and Mary Melton of Braemar pointed to overlapping UK and EU sanctions and the age of the ships. Braemar counts 170 very large crude carriers under US sanctions; only 44 are under 20 years old and acceptable to charterers.

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