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Tanker Transportation T SHASHI N. KUMAR Maine Maritime Academy Castine, Maine, United States 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Brief History of Oil Trading and Tanker Transportation Current Oil Movements and Tanker Demand Trends Tanker Nomenclature and Fleet Statistics The Economics of Tanker Markets The Regulatory Environment Recent Developments and Outlook for the Future Glossary charterer An individual or entity, such as an oil company, that contracts the services of a ship under different chartering arrangements. charterparty The chartering agreement or contract between a ship owner and the charterer. deadweight (DWT) A rough measure of the cargo-carrying capacity of an oil tanker. Panamax The largest size ship that can safely transit the Panama Canal given the limitations of the Panama Canal locks. spot charter A ship contracted for a specific voyage by a charterer. Suezmax A fully loaded tanker that can transit the Suez Canal. supertankers Large and ultra large tankers. time charter The leasing of a ship for a given period of time by a charterer. Tanker transportation serves as a vital link in facilitating the movement of oil and petroleum products from their limited sources of origin to their innumerable destinations the world over. This particular segment of the ocean shipping industry constitutes the largest component of seaborne cargo movements today, with tanker cargoes accounting for approximately one-third of all cargoes shipped by sea. Although oil is also transported through pipelines as well as by tanker trucks and tanker rail cars, these movements are relatively minor and often confined to national or (in some limited cases) Encyclopedia of Energy, Volume 6. r 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. intraregional trades. Accordingly, this is a crucial transportation segment for the global community of oil consumers as well as