Bloated Market Gets More Crude From Sea Storage
Oil market recovery has flattened contango; 5 million barrels sold from sea storage in past week. Physical oil is coming under pressure as trade houses unwind a profitable storage play after several months that saw them holding millions of barrels on tankers at sea. A drop in the volume of crude stored for speculative profit is putting more supply into an already saturated market…
Homeless Atlantic Oil Cargoes Deepen Glut
Millions of stranded barrels underscore glut; elevated freight rates complicate search for buyers. A shadowy build up of oil has intensified in the Atlantic Basin with homeless cargoes of crude turning into unintentional floating storage - another sign the global surplus has some way to go before clearing. Off the coast of West Africa and in the waters of the North Sea…
Traders Book Oil Tankers to Store 25m Barrels at Sea
Some of the world's biggest oil traders have booked supertankers to store at least 25 million barrels at sea in recent days, seeking to take advantage of the crash in crude prices and make a profit down the line. Floating storage levels are expected to increase further in coming weeks as trading companies adopt a strategy that was last used in 2009 when prices…
Mideast Crude Tanker Rates Near 3-month Low
Crude oil tanker earnings on the major Middle East route fell to their lowest in nearly three months as a slowdown in business in recent days battered rate sentiment. The world's benchmark VLCC export route from the Middle East Gulf (MEG) to Japan <DFRT-ME-JAP> on Monday reached W37.93 in the worldscale measure of freight rates, or $8,142 a day when translated into average earnings - its lowest since June 23.
Long Range Product Tanker Rates Keep Gains
Long-range clean tanker rates remained firm this week although a likely slowdown in bookings was expected to cap the pace of gains in coming days. Larger Long-Range 2 or LR2, 75,000 tonne shipments on the Middle East Gulf to Japan route were at W114.72 or $20,445 a day on Thursday, the latest Baltic Exchange data showed. That compared with W114.72 or $20,012 a day on Wednesday and W114.95 or $20,386 a day last Thursday.
