Earnings for the biggest oil tankers on the benchmark route shipping Saudi Arabian crude to Japan will rise 48 percent this year to average $20,600 daily, said McQuilling Services LLC.

Very large crude carriers hauling 2 million barrels of cargo earned $10,300 a day in 2011 and $13,900 last year on the route, the Garden City, New York-based tanker adviser said in an e-mailed report. The summary of a McQuilling report gave no comments on how the estimates were determined.

Earnings for Suezmax tankers that carry 1 million-barrel cargoes on the route to Italy from the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk will post this year’s largest gain, jumping 49 percent to $18,200 a day, according to McQuilling. Daily rates for the benchmark voyage to the U.S. East Coast from Nigeria will gain 31 percent to $16,900, it said.

Returns for Aframax tankers will rise the least among crude carriers, increasing 12 percent on the journey to the U.S. Gulf Coast from Caribbean ports to $10,500 daily, McQuilling said. Each of the ships can hold 650,000 barrels of oil.

Medium Range tankers carrying 38,000 metric-ton cargoes of oil products including gasoline to New York from Rotterdam will earn $7,300 daily this year, down 16 percent, McQuilling said. Rates will slide 18 percent to $5,900 on voyages to the U.S. East Coast from the Caribbean and increase 11 percent to $8,100 for journeys to Japan from Singapore, the estimates showed.

Earnings for Long Range Two ships carrying 75,000 tons of naphtha to Japan from the Middle East will gain 21 percent to $12,800 a day, while Long Range One tankers hauling 55,000-ton cargoes will rise 13 percent to $12,500 on the same route, according to McQuilling.

VLCCs will carry 48 percent of the world’s seaborne crude this year, estimated at 38.2 million barrels a day, while Aframaxes will haul 29 percent, London-based Clarkson Plc, the biggest shipbroker, said in January.

-- Source from Bloomberg