Even though global oil demand was increasing throughout 2010 to reach an all-time high of 87.8 million barrel per day (b/d) on average, the rates for tankers were far from their pre-crisis levels. The key to explaining this contrast is the development of supply. Since 2007, the previous record year regarding oil demand, the world tanker fleet expanded by 27 per cent in terms of dwt capacity, while oil demand increased by less than two per cent. One element to explaining the oversupply are of course the high expectations in the boom years between 2006 and 2008. At the same time, the IMO phase-out regulation for single-hull tankers was expected to reduce the fleet's capacity considerably. Together, these expectations led to record amounts of new orders. End of 2010, the phase-out process of single-hull tankers was assumed to be mosdy completed; only single-hull tankers which successfully passed the Condition Assessment Scheme (CAS) were allowed to operate longer (until 2015 the latest). At the beginning of 2011, there were still some 30 million dwt of single hull tanker tonnage in the fleet.
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