NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Bjorn Moller, chief executive officer of Bermuda-based shipowner Teekay Corp., expects rates to transport oil to be weak until the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which pumps about 40 percent of the world's crude, increases output as the recession eases.

"2009 is going to be tough," Moller, 51, said in an interview in New York yesterday. "We've had a significant event, with Opec cutting seven or eight percent of seaborne oil."

Shipping rates have tumbled as the recession cut global demand for crude and oil-based fuels. Rates for the benchmark Persian Gulf-to-Japan supertanker route have fallen 76 percent in the past year, according to the London-based Baltic Exchange.

Rates to ship oil on Teekay's Suezmax tankers, which can carry about one million barrels of oil, fell to $24,000 a day in the second quarter, Moller said. The company earned $40,000 a day in the first quarter, Moller said on a June 4 conference call with analysts and investors.

Second-quarter rates for Aframax tankers, which can carry about 600,000 barrels of oil, dropped to $15,000 a day from $25,000 in the first quarter.

The Paris-based International Energy Agency this month raised its global oil-demand forecast for the first time in 10 months on signs the worst of the recession is over.

Moller said: "Once Opec oil comes back we could be in a greater demand situation than prior to the cuts, as opposed to just back to where we were."

Teekay rose 42 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $19.71 at 4 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. The stock is down 60 percent from a year ago.

Teekay has a fleet of 173 ships that can carry crude, refined petroleum products, liquefied natural gas and liquefied petroleum gas.