Tanker Ship

The most common tanker ships are the crude oil tankers and the product tankers, which carry crude oil and refined oil products, respectively. In addition there are chemical tankers, gas tankers (LPG and LNG) along with numerous other lesser known tanker types.

The common denominator for all tankers is that they carry liquid substances in large bulk quantities.

Depending on ship type they may be able to carry other liquids than the ones the ship type is specifically build for. Thus there is a much larger substitution within the group of tankers than e.g. between the group of tankers and the group of dry bulk ships. This implies that the earnings are highly correlated between the different tanker types and segments.

For instance the product tanker may carry crude oil but the crude oil tanker cannot necessarily carry refined oil products since these oil products may require the tanks to be coated which the tanks of the crude oil tanker are not.

The chemical tanker may carry oil products but the product tankers cannot carry chemicals since these chemical products require special storage facilities and security procedures.

The LPG tanker may carry clean petroleum products but the product tanker can not carry liquefied gasses.

The substitution among tankers is to some extent constrained by the vetting procedure of the oil companies and by the costs of cleaning the tanks when changing the type of liquid carried in the tanks. Thus the tankers do sometimes change employment pattern, but only when the difference in freight rates is great enough to cover the costs associated with the chang