Crude Tanker Rates Hold Near Record as Baltic Primorsk Loadings Face a New Strike Threat

Crude tanker freight opened the week with the Baltic Dirty Tanker Index holding above 7,500 points, within sight of the strongest print of the last twelve months, and a fresh threat to a second major Russian export corridor is now priced into the segments that move that crude. The market for moving oil by sea has become the clearest single gauge of how far the war on Russian energy infrastructure has shifted shipping risk, and the Baltic routes are where the next dislocation will show up first.

The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index closed last week at 7,556 points, off the 7,999 peak of 13 October but still about seven times the level of a year earlier. Clean product tanker rates are climbing even as…