Store Oil News

Efforts to limit environmental damage from a cargo vessel that sank after a Houthi missile strike and another abandoned during a fiery assault are on hold until attacks on ships ease, the United Nations' maritime shipping regulatory agency said on Monday.The UK-owned Rubymar last month became the first vessel lost since the Houthis began targeting commercial ships in the Red Sea area in November. The bulk carrier with 21,000 metric tons of fertiliser contained in its cargo hold…

Oil and gas company Valeura Energy said Monday that modifications to the MT Jaka Tarub crude oil storage vessel were complete, making the vessel compatible with infrastructure at its Wassana oil field, offshore Thailand.According to Valeura Energy, the vessel is capable of tandem crude oil loading/offloading. "Subject to favorable metocean conditions, the vessel will arrive at the Wassana field in the coming days, after which Valeura intends to resume oil production operations, targeting initial rates of up to 3,000 bbls/d, net to the 89% working interest share held by its subsidiary company Valeura Energy Asia Pte. Ltd." the company said.As reported by Offshore Engineer in December 2022…

The United Nations has purchased a large tanker to store about 1.1 million barrels of oil that will be transferred from a decaying vessel off Yemen's coast in a bid to avert an environmental disaster, officials said on Thursday.U.N. officials have been warning for several years that the Red Sea and the coastline of Yemen was at risk as the Safer tanker could spill four times as much oil as the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska.But the top U.N. official in Yemen, David Gressly…

Oil and gas company Valeura Energy has entered into a definitive agreement with PT Samudra Alam Transport to charter the MT Vula crude oil tanker to store oil produced from the Wassana oil field, offshore in the Gulf of Thailand.In Q2 2022, Valeura acquired KrisEnergy International (Thailand) Holdings Ltd. which owns and operates two licenses in the offshore Gulf of Thailand. The acquisition included the suspended Wassana oil field and the fully appraised Rossukon oil field. Additionally, through a separate agreement, the company agreed to acquire the Mobile Production Unit Ingenium (“MOPU”) which is on location at the Wassana oil field.Valeura said this week that the oil tanker to be chartered for Wassana would be renamed MT Jaka Tarub.The MT Jaka Tarub is a Panamax-sized oil tanker…

An oil vessel used for storage that exploded off the coast of Nigeria last week had not been maintained for some time and had technical issues, two sources and an environmental group said on Friday, as its wreckage lay in the sea after the fire was put out.The 10 crew members who were on board at the time of the explosion early on Wednesday remained unaccounted for, according to witnesses, amid fears they may have been caught in the fire.A Reuters witness saw the burnt out remains of the Trinity Spirit floating production…

U.S. refiners booked at least four tankers to store refined oil products off the Gulf Coast following a cyber attacks that crippled the biggest U.S. pipeline, shipping data showed on Tuesday.The attack on the Colonial pipeline network, which supplies half of the fuel consumed along the East Coast, has forced Gulf Coast refineries to scale back operations due to lack of storage space.The tankers, booked by Marathon Petroleum, Valero Energy, Phillips 66 and PBF Energy, can hold around 350,000 tonnes of fuel.

Oil major BP has provisionally chartered a supertanker to store crude oil off Malaysia at this year's lowest rate yet, according to industry sources and data on Refinitiv Eikon.The charter is the latest in a flurry of ship bookings made by oil majors and trading houses after tanker rates plunged. A resurgence in coronavirus cases, poor weather and the end of the northern hemisphere's summer driving season have slowed global oil trade and shipping demand.BP chartered very large crude carrier (VLCC) Gene at $20,500 per day for three months and has the option to extend another three months at $22,000 per day, one of the sources said."It is the cheapest rate so far," he said.BP declined to comment.

Oil tanker group Frontline reported a big jump in second-quarter earnings on Thursday as energy traders paid to store crude that went unsold amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said on Thursday.Frontline's April-June adjusted net profit rose to $206.1 million from a year-ago $4.2 million, topping a forecast of $203.3 million in a Refinitiv SmartEstimate poll of analysts."Our results for the first half of 2020 are the strongest in more than 10 years," Chief Executive Robert Hvide Macleod said in a statement."The demand shock brought on by COVID-19 was so large and sudden that global commercial inventories quickly surged to record levels…

Iran has slashed crude oil production to its lowest level in four decades as storage tanks and vessels are almost completely full due to a fall in exports and refinery run cuts caused by the coronavirus pandemic, industry data showed.Total onshore crude stocks surged to 54 million barrels in April from 15 million barrels in January, and swelled further to 63 million barrels in June, according to FGE Energy.Market intelligence firm Kpler estimated Iranian average onshore crude storage for June to be around 66 million barrels.That is around 85% of available onshore storage capacity."However…

The volume of crude stored on ships in Asia has come off the peaks seen earlier this month on a recovery in demand in China and India, trade sources and analysts said. A total of 3.4 million tonnes (24.8 million barrels) of crude oil was discharged from floating storage into Asian markets in the past seven days, with China the top destination at 1.8 million tonnes and India second at 842,679 tonnes, according to oil analytics firm Vortexa. Robust demand from China, the world's top oil importer…

Ship assessors are resorting to virtual inspections of oil tankers to keep vessels afloat, as the coronavirus pandemic makes physical visits to check for seaworthiness tougher and a slump in fuel demand increases the need for ships as storage.Oil tankers require rigorous inspections twice a year to reduce the risk of oil spills or mechanical collapse with polluting cargoes onboard.But the global pandemic has disrupted international trade, leaving merchant seafarers stuck on ships…

An increased number of oil tankers sit at anchor near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as the volume of oil products held in floating storage around the globe has skyrocketed in the past month amid what analysts are saying is the biggest oil glut in history.There were 27 tanker vessels off the coast of Southern California Thursday afternoon, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, who is monitoring the situation to help manage the surge.Oil traders are struggling to find enough…

The volume of key oil products held in floating storage around the globe has more than doubled in the past month to about 68 million barrels, according to data from oil analytics firm Vortexa.The figure, which includes gasoline, diesel and jet fuel as of April 22, compares with around 30 million barrels in the previous month, Vortexa said.With available space on land storage tanks scarce, traders around the world have been rushing to book tankers of different sizes to store oil products as lockdowns around the world to tackle the coronavirus pandemic hammer oil demand.Floating storage has incr

Enterprise Products Partners LP said it would offer spot shipments of crude on an existing pipeline from the U.S. Gulf coast to Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for benchmark U.S. crude futures, as demand to store oil inland surges.The move marks a sharp reversal from recent pipeline projects that were all built connecting inland markets to the Gulf Coast as U.S. crude exports climbed to record highs after Washington lifted a ban in late 2015.However, the coronavirus pandemic has crushed global oil demand and dented U.S.

A jump in freight rates has shaved profits for oil traders seeking to store crude for sale towards the end of the year, even as the contango in the first six months for Brent futures stretched to its widest ever, trade sources said.While a sharp rebound in spot crude differentials could lift traders' profits, a broadening slump in global demand is stretching out the time that markets will need to digest bulging inventories and spark a price recovery, traders said.Unlike in previous contango plays -- where low oil prices eventually prompted major producers to tighten supplies…

Supertanker freight rates are on the rise for a second time this month as producers, refiners and traders scramble to secure ships to transport crude or store a fast-growing global glut of oil, industry sources said.Freight rates for very large crude-oil carriers (VLCC) along the Middle East Gulf to China route were assessed at about $180,000 a day on Monday, up from some $125,000 on Friday and a weekly low of about $90,000 a day on Wednesday, according to several ship broking sources.Its difficult to say whether or not the rates will be sustained…

Top exporter Saudi Arabia has chartered an armada of ships to flood the market with additional oil, but in the process has driven freight costs so high refiners are reluctant to take the shipments.That could leave the kingdom stuck with tens of millions of barrels in expensive ships at anchor when the coronavirus outbreak has destroyed oil demand and international prices have lost more than half their value compared with the start of the year.Following the failure to persuade…

Trading house Glencore has chartered the 3 million barrel crude carrier Europe to store oil at sea for at least 6 months, trading sources on Tuesday.The vessel is one of two so-called ultra large crude carriers (ULCC), the largest tankers in the world.Glencore booked the vessel at a rate of $37,000 a day for the first six months, according to the sources.A Glencore spokesman declined to comment.Sources told Reuters last week that Royal Dutch Shell had provisionally booked at least three supertankers to store crude oil at sea for at least three months as traders brace for a sharp rise in global

Royal Dutch Shell is in discussions to charter at least three supertankers to store around 6 million barrels of crude oil at sea, shipping sources said on Wednesday.Shell has provisionally booked the vessels, known as very large crude carriers (VLCCs), for storage options for at least three months, the sources said, adding that the fixtures were still to be concluded.A Shell spokeswoman declined to comment.If fully fixed, these would be the first tankers to be used for floating…

Italian oil major expects to invest $1.795 billion in three offshore Mexican oil fields by 2040, according to a development plan approved by Mexico's oil regulator on Tuesday.The plan covering the Amoca, Mizton and Tecoalli shallow water fields is the second one approved by the regulator, known as the National Hydrocarbons Commission (CNH), following a landmark 2013 energy opening that has led to more than 100 oil and gas contracts being awarded in a series of auctions.Eni sees initial crude oil production of 8…

The shipping industry will this year scrap the largest number of oil tankers in over half-a-decade, driven by weak earnings, firm prices for scrap steel and the need to prepare fleets for strict new environmental regulations.The surge in scrapping underscores how the sector is grappling with one of its worst-ever crises, hit hard after rates for transporting oil plunged to multi-year lows in the wake of excess tanker supply and tepid demand as OPEC production cuts bite."The tanker markets are definitely in a trough at the moment…

Tanker demolition is on the rise as 3.5 million DWT has been scrapped so far in 2018, according to Vessels Value. Each factor played a part as the decision to remove a ship from service varies depending on the financial situation of the owner. Some may be motivated as the $/t offered price offsets enough of their remaining mortgage on a ship to allow them to move out of a low cashflow market, while others may remove a ship after it completes a long-term storage contract. Higher…

Strong demand is tightening the market but rising US output could sap efforts to rebalance market. The amount of oil stored on tankers around Singapore has dropped sharply in the last months, the latest indication that OPEC-led supply cuts are successfully tightening crude markets even as U.S. exports have soared. Shipping data in Thomson Reuters Eikon shows around 15 super-tankers are currently filled with oil in waters off Singapore and western Malaysia, storing around 30 million barrels of crude. That is half the number of ships in June and down from 40 tankers holding surplus fuel in mid-2017. The drop in floating storage around…