Single-hull tanker traffic to Saudi ports dwindles

London : The number of single-hull supertankers bound for Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil-producer, fell 50 per cent over the past month, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

Three of the vessels are now bound for Ras Tanura in the Arabian Gulf, or Yanbu on the country's Red Sea coast, down from six on November 26.

The Bloomberg data lists single-hull very large or ultra large crude carriers by country of destination.

The data are from ships in service whose signals were received in the past week by AISLive on Bloomberg. Fifty-four transmissions were received out of a total of 84 such vessels in service.

Trading of single-hull tankers will become more restricted next year under International Maritime Organisation regulations. The vessels will require inspections to prove their seaworthiness.

Approval

Countries and individual port operators can refuse entry to the ships, and they will also need approval from the so-called flag states where they are registered.

The data doesn't strip out vessels that may be storing cargoes or those that are anchored without cargoes.

There are five ships whose destinations are unspecified. Two of those are off Kuwait, two off Malaysia and one is off the United Arab Emirates.