Tankers Move from Fuel to Crude Trade as War Upends Flows

The war in Iran and the closed Strait of Hormuz are accelerating a major shift in the oil tanker market, in which smaller tankers carrying fuels are becoming crude carriers amid better economics as crude buyers scramble for supply that’s not trapped behind the Strait. As many as 68 so-called long range-2 (LR2) clean tankers that have transported fuels such as diesel and gasoline have become the so-called dirty tankers and started shipping crude so far this year, per data by ship-tracking platform Signal Ocean compiled by Bloomberg. …