Event Highlights: Innovation Series New York 2024
Following on from successful events in Singapore and Houston, Vortexa’s third instalment of Innovation Series took place in New York on Thursday, September 19.
Located only a stone’s throw from the world-famous Madison Square Arena, Team Vortexa (with help of some star-studded industry experts) put together an evening of market insights, thoughtful discussions and lively opinions.
The evening started with Vortexa’s Holden Turney, Troy Gungor and Jay Maroo covering some of the most important supply and demand trends in global oil and freight.
Some of the main themes covered include the weakness in global motor fuel imports, with a similar theme emerging in naphtha & LPG imports. Our data continues to show a view that counters a previously more popularly held narrative of resurgent jet fuel demand supporting global oil demand this year.
Other key topics noted were the impact of lower Russian crude exports driving Aframax rates lower, and the result of VLCC cleanups on supertanker and Long-Range (LR) freight rates and European diesel margins.
After the short, but sharp market presentation, we then turned to the wisdom of our three external speakers Erik Broekhuizen (Head of Tanker Research & Consulting, Poten & Partners), Benjamin Hoff (Global Head of Commodity Strategy, Société Générale CIB) and Lois Zabrocky (President & CEO, International Seaways)
With Vortexa’s Chief Economist David Wech moderating the panel, we navigated the challenges of diverging paths taken by OPEC+ members in their exports, the outlook for shipping companies given recent weakness in short-term earnings and some speculative thoughts on the ramifications from the US election later this year – namely for Iran’s, Venezuela’s and Russia’s oil exports.
We also explored the ever-present theme of weak Chinese oil demand, and the importance of new refinery startups, such as Nigeria’s Dangote refinery, for gasoline supply/demand balances in the Atlantic Basin.
Staying consistent with our previous events in Houston and Singapore, the evening ended with a networking reception, with great food for thought via conversation and canapes. Once again, we thank all our guests for attending the event and helping it be such a success.
We close out our 2024 edition of Innovation Series with our London finale on 26 September, after which we’ll be back next year!
