Oil Tanker Rates
A public, futures-based proxy for crude tanker hire rates: BWET, the ETF that holds tanker freight futures on the main route from the Middle East to Asia, with tanker stocks for the longer record.
Latest reading
On October 2, 2026, BWET closed at $873.00, 20× its February average of $44.12 and +92.3% over the past month. Over the same stretch since February, Brent is 1.6× and the diesel crack 2.8× their own averages, so tanker freight futures have risen far faster than crude or the diesel margin. Tanker owners' shares are +118.5% this year.
Sources, methodology & freshnessBWET daily closes (Yahoo Finance; fund by Amplify ETFs); tanker owner closes from our daily price database; Brent and the diesel crack from EIA via FRED · Daily, after the US closeData as of 2026-10-02 · Open ↓Close ↑
Tanker freight futures (BWET) against their February average: an extreme spike.
Tanker freight futures since 2023
BWET on a log scale, where equal steps are equal percentage moves. Before this year its record close was $36.71 on January 30, 2026; it now trades at 24× that.
Tanker freight futures have risen far faster than crude since February
Each line divided by its own February 2026 average, so 100 is the pre-shock level and 200 is double. Brent ended at 1.6× its February level and the diesel crack at 2.8×; tanker freight futures ended at 20×.
Tanker stocks since 2010
An equal-weight basket of FRO, DHT, TNK, INSW, the longer record behind the futures. It moved 1.6× its February level while the futures moved 20×. The shares have priced in a small part of the spike, as owners' shares usually do when the market doubts that peak rates will last.
Why traders watch this
Freight is the cost between a barrel at the export terminal and a barrel at the refinery. When tankers get scarce, because ships are stuck, routes get longer or buyers rush to secure cargoes, the delivered price of crude and fuel rises on top of the benchmark crude price. It reaches import prices, refinery margins and tanker owners' earnings, which report it with a lag of a quarter.
We do not publish a forward-return study here. BWET has traded since May 3, 2023, too short a record to say what a spike of this size has preceded.
How this is computed, and what it can't tell you
The dollar-a-day tanker rates traders quote come from the Baltic Exchange and shipbrokers under license. BWET holds the futures that settle on those rates, so its price follows expected freight rates. Its prospectus warns that its returns can differ substantially from spot freight rates because of contract maturities and rolling, and as a small fund its share price can sit above or below the value of its futures on a fast day.
It reads the long-haul crude trade. Product tankers, which carry diesel and gasoline, have their own rates and are not in the fund.
Tanker freight futures (BWET) against their February average: an extreme spike.
How Oil Tanker Rates Works
- 1An index of freight futuresTanker day rates in dollars are published by the Baltic Exchange and shipbrokers under license, so they cannot be republished here. BWET, the Breakwave Tanker Shipping ETF, holds the freight futures that settle on those benchmark rates, so its price follows expected freight rates. Its prospectus notes that its returns can differ substantially from spot rates because of contract maturities and rolling, so the page shows it as a proxy, never as dollars a day.
- 2Mostly the VLCC route to AsiaThe fund holds about 90% TD3C, very large crude carriers from the Middle East to China, and about 10% TD20, Suezmax tankers from West Africa to Europe, one to six months forward. It reads the long-haul crude trade most clearly.
- 3Measured against FebruaryEach reading is compared with its own February 2026 average, the last full month before this year's shock, so tanker rates, crude and the diesel margin can be read on one scale.
- 4A longer record from tanker stocksBWET began trading in May 2023. For the years before that, the page adds an equal-weight basket of Frontline, DHT, Teekay Tankers and International Seaways. Their shares track charter rates over time, but they also carry each company's debt, fleet and dividends, so the basket is a proxy.