Something Very Strange Is Taking Place Off The Coast Of Galveston, TX

[PADemD]

Having exposed the world yesterday to the 2-mile long line of tankers-full'o'crude heading from Iraq to the US, several weeks after reporting that China has run out of oil storage space we can now confirm that the global crude "in transit" glut is becoming gargantuan and is starting to have adverse consequences on the price of oil.

While the crude oil tanker backlog in Houston reaches an almost unprecedented 39 (with combined capacity of 28.4 million barrels), as The FT reports that from China to the Gulf of Mexico, the growing flotilla of stationary supertankers is evidence that the oil price crash may still have further to run, as more than 100m barrels of crude oil and heavy fuels are being held on ships at sea (as the year-long supply glut fills up available storage on land). The storage problems are so severe in fact, that traders asking ships to go slow, and that is where we see something very strange occurring off the coast near Galveston, TX.

FT reports that "the amount of oil at sea is at least double the levels of earlier this year and is equivalent to more than a day of global oil supply. The numbers of vessels has been compiled by the Financial Times from satellite tracking data and industry sources."
The storage glut is unprecedented:

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-12/something-very-strange-taking-place-coast-galveston

[onecaliberal]

1. Then why am I paying nearly 3 dollars a gallon for gas still?

[Control-Z]

3. Are you in California?

If so, that is why.

[LiberalArkie]

8. I think I paid 2.49 last week for gas here in Arkansas.

[Control-Z]

9. California always runs $0.50 - $1.00 more

than the rest of the country. We've got that special summer mix and then a winter mix. I don't mind paying extra if our emissions really are cleaner.

What pisses me off? It seems like every summer one of our refineries explodes or has an emergency shut down. Then prices shoot up for a month or two.

Such a coincidence that it happens every freaking summer.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. No nearby refineries? We hit 1.99 here recently.

But that ship time is pushing the cost up - somebody has to be paying for the ship to waste its time, rather than delivering and making further runs, which is going to drive the cost up for the oil being delivered. Producers are going to have to end up easing up on production, if there's nowhere to store what they're putting out, and ships are backlogged with undelivered oil.

This is the one place I actually do wonder if Obama is playing '11D chess'. If 'all of the above' as an energy policy was a deliberate geopolitical maneuver to attack other major oil producers and screw over their economies. Our OPEC "allies" in the Middle East, Russia, Venezuela all have to be in a world of hurt as a result of depressed oil/gas prices and gluts of unprocessed oil floating around.

[onecaliberal]

10. We have plenty of refineries in this state.

[saturnsring]

6. it's gone just under 2.00$ here in cleveland ohio

[niyad]

11. saw gas for 1.99 here

[Xipe Totec]

2. Something slicking this way comes.

Apologies to Ray Bradbury.

[PADemD]

4. I hope these tankers do not run into any super storms.

[Gman]

7. Not at this time of year