3 ms·

What does the normal level of tankers idling outside of Galveston look like?

• mattlutze 11y ago
  It does seem that that would be the pertinent question. If you look at the density map layer option, you can crossfade between 2013 and 2014. I didn't sign up for an account, but it looks like in 2014 at least they saw an increase in traffic where the tankers are now parked. But, last year there was also significantly more traffic through that port in general, so it may not be that the percentage of temporarily held ships as a function of total traffic changed?
  • HiLo 11y ago
    (There's also a lot more energy products coming out of that region now, hence more vessels.)
• washedup 11y ago
  This sort of phenomenon can be seen lots of times throughout the past decades. Anytime oil falls below a certain price, it becomes cheaper to pay to keep the ships running offshore under the assumption that oil prices will increase in the near term.
  • toomuchtodo 11y ago
    It's called "Contango". http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-31/how-oil-markets-came-to-embrace-contango http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-03-31/how-oil-mar...
  • kelvin0 11y ago
    Makes sense to me, why the downvotes? Maybe missing some references to back up his claim?