Oil storage: highest in 25 years
'Oil storage at 25 year high'
Norway's Frontline, one of the world's biggest oil tanker owners, said today oil companies were storing "about" 80 million barrels of crude oil at sea, possibly the highest in a quarter of a century.
"We think it's about 80 million barrels...but we are not 100% certain," the acting chief executive officer Martin Jensen told Reuters.
He said some 30 to 35 very large crude carriers capable of carrying two million barrels each and 10 Suezmaxes with a capacity of a million barrels each were being used by oil companies for floating storage in the last few months.
The figures include oil tankers owned by oil companies which were being used to stockpile oil.
Jensen said most of the supertankers being used for "floating storage" were anchored in the US Gulf, with others laid up in Asia and the Middle East Gulf.
"The Iranians have some and others are around Fujairah," he said.
Oil majors and independent trading companies have booked tankers in the last three months for storage to take advantage of a steep contango in the oil market.
Major ship broking houses and industry sources contacted by Reuters since oil majors and traders began storing oil late last year give more conservative estimates for storage.
Most say oil companies are storing some 60 to 70 million barrels in total, more than 3O VLCCs worth of oil equivalent.
"The truth is no one really knows exactly how much is being stored," one said.
"We have a total of 14 VLCCs chartered in from the spot market, what the oil majors are doing with their own fleets we just don't know," he said.