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The Baltic Exchange offers a suite of shipping investor tools (source: WikiCommons)

BOPEX-T: Baltic Exchange adds tanker operating expenses to suite of assessment tools

05 May 2020

by Craig Jallal

Tanker operating expenses (opex) have always been a difficult criteria for third-parties to judge with any degree of accuracy or reliability. The addition of quarterly assessments from reliable sources will be welcomed by Baltic Exchange members

The Baltic Exchange has added quarterly assessments of the cost of operating crude oil carrying Aframax tankers and clean product carrying medium range (MR) tankers to its growing suite of shipping investor tools.

The new BOPEX-T service is based on assessments made by independent third-party ship management companies Anglo Eastern, Fleet Management and V-Ships. Using the full suite of independent Baltic Exchange indices, investors are now able to benchmark daily vessel earnings, running costs, sale and purchase and recycling prices. The same vessel descriptions are used across all the datasets.

For the new BOPEX-T tanker assessments, each panel member submits four numbers, expressed in US$ per day:

• Crew (US$ per day, including all fees).

• Technical ((US$ per day, including all fees).

• Insurance (US$ per day, including all fees and rebates).

The fourth, an assessment of a five-year drydock cost, is amortised over five years to give a US$/day price but published separately and does not contribute to the headline opex calculation.

The addition of BOPEX-T comes after the launch of the dry bulk carrier version. Launched in September 2019, BOPEX-D covers dry bulk carriers (Capesize, Panamax, Supramax, Handysize).

For tankers, the newly launched BOPEX-T is based on the following specifications:

• Aframax: 115,000 dwt built in ’first class competitive yard’, first class main engine maker. LOA about 248 m, beam about 44 m. Non coated tanks. Not ice-classed. Five years old. Special survey passed.

• MR Product Tanker: 51,000 dwt, built in ’first class competitive yard’, first class main engine maker. LOA about 183 m, beam about 32.2 m, draft about 13.2 m. Coated tanks, IMO 2/3, deep well pumps. Not ice-classed. Five-year special survey passed.

The panellists use the following assumptions when submitting their assessments:

• 20 crew on Aframax, 21 crew on MR.

• Flag of convenience with International Transport Federation-approved agreement.

• Standard to maintain full Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) SIRE vetting.

• Vessel trading to US, Certificate Of Financial Responsibility in place.

• Vessel on a five-year drydock regime otherwise in-water surveys, well-maintained steel and coating, being maintained to retain sale price.

• 380 CST fuel oil or equivalent compliant with Marpol specifications at any time when not burning gas.

• International Group P&I, first class hull and machinery, class with an IACS member. No breaches of International Warranty Limits or Additional War Risks covered.

• Lubricant oil and spares included under technical.

Assessments are provided quarterly with data from Q3 2019 available following a recent trial.