Oil traders increased the fleet of ships stationed in the North sea to store crude oil. This is another sign of weak demand, which led to the accumulation of the largest reserves in the sea since 2009.
Nine tankers carrying some 9 million barrels of basic grades of oil in the North sea, floating near the coast of the UK, compared to 7 million in may. This is evidenced by the survey of oil traders and vessel traffic in the region, writes Bloomberg.
As of the end of June, the volume of oil stored in tankers worldwide rose to 95 million barrels.
The strong decline in demand 2008-2009 gave traders an incentive to hold oil, according to IEA.
“Unlike 2009, when storage volumes in the sea rose as it was profitable, now the figure is growing due to marketing and logistical issues,” – the report says the IEA.
Stockpiling shows that even when away surplus production, and global markets reach balance, the recovery process will be uneven.
The growth of demand even at low prices will slow down, noted in the report of the energy information Administration of the United States. During this time there is usually a surge in demand, but now the effect is minimal.
A large part of the oil stored in the North sea, simply can not find buyers. And, probably, the tanker will continue to float around the coast of great Britain for some time. Traditionally, then this oil is sold to Europe, not having driven her away, but the demand is now very low. The longest of these tankers keeps your cargo supertanker Maran Thetis off the East coast of England, he’s been doing this since April 23.
Ian Taylor, chief Executive officer of Vitol Group, the largest independent oil trader, said in an interview with Bloomberg last week, contango, that is, the premium paid for supply of oil in the future compared to current prices is not big enough to make storing oil profitable.
That is now any long-term use vessels to store oil is probably connected with the need to wait for the queue to unload in some ports.
