By Weilun Soon

Dec 11, 2025 (Bloomberg) – The shortage of oil tankers is so serious that new ships, which normally carry refined fuels on their first journeys, are now sailing empty to pick up crude oil as quickly as possible.

This year, six supertankers have traveled empty from East Asia to load crude oil in the Middle East, Africa, or the Americas, according to ship-tracking data from Bloomberg and Signal Ocean. In contrast, last year there was only one such trip.

Typically, tanker owners prefer to use new vessels to carry products like gasoline on their inaugural voyages. This is both economically and operationally sensible, as oil products are cleaner than crude and do not require cleaning the tanks afterward. Additionally, many new ships are built in East Asia, which imports a lot of unrefined oil and exports refined products.

However, the current tanker shortage is changing this practice. Oil producers, both within OPEC and outside, have increased their output this year. Western sanctions on Russia and risks associated with the Red Sea are disrupting traditional routes, leading to longer trips and increased ship usage.

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Meanwhile, smaller product tankers are also entering the oil trade, and some traders are breaking up cargoes due to a lack of larger vessels. This has further increased transportation costs. The Baltic Dirty Tanker Index, which measures rates for carrying crude oil on major routes, has risen by 50% since the end of July.

“When very large crude carriers are earning $100,000 per day, and Suezmax ships are making $80,000 for transporting crude, people are rushing to secure those rates before they disappear,” said Georgios Sakellariou, a chartering analyst at Signal Maritime, a company that manages a vessel pool affiliated with Signal Ocean.

The Aliakmon I was the first supertanker this year to make a maiden voyage without cargo. It left a shipyard in northeastern China in late June and traveled to Kuwait to load nearly 2 million barrels of oil. The ship, owned by the Japanese trading company Mitsui & Co., delivered this oil to South Korea in late November.