- A pandemic-led demand crunch is causing storage tanks around the world to fill up with oil that no one wants.
- Nearly 90% of the globe’s 4.3 billion barrels of crude oil storage is full, according to the research firm Rystad Energy.
- Most of that excess oil ends up in floating-roof storage tanks. But millions of barrels are also sitting idly in supertankers, which have nowhere to go.
- A handful of companies like Kpler and Orbital Insight have developed creative ways to track the oil glut involving sensors and satellite imagery.
An article in Business Insider brings us 13 stunning photos of supertankers and storage tanks reveal the global oil glut in epic proportions.
Global oil glut
Global oil storage capacity is roughly 4.3 billion barrels, and nearly 90% of it is already full, according to the consultancy Rystad Energy. The firm now sees storage reaching “tank tops” in as few as three weeks. That means there’s a massive amount of oil with nowhere to go.
Most of it ends up in large floating-roof oil tanks, such as those that surround the city of Cushing, Oklahoma, where the US benchmark, West Texas intermediate (WTI), is delivered. Other oil is sitting in caverns underground.More still is stuck inside supertankers – like those seen off the coast of Long Beach on Thursday last week.
The tankers were carrying more than 20 million barrels of crude oil, making it the largest quantity of crude ever to float off the West Coast, according to Kpler, a company that tracks oil storage.
Vessel safety at anchor
With land-based storage nearly filled up, there’s nowhere to put the oil. Oil tankers are typically used to transport — not store — oil. But with global demand down nearly 30% this month and tanks nearing capacity, there’s nowhere for the oil to go.
The US Coast Guard said it was monitoring the ships The US Coast Guard, which is typically not patrolling oil tankers, recorded a video of the ships last week.
“Due to the unique nature of this situation, the Coast Guard is constantly evaluating and adapting our procedures to ensure the safety of the vessels at anchor and the protection of the surrounding environment,” Commander Marshall Newberry, who works with the Los Angeles Coast Guard, said in a statement.
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Source: Business Insider
