Energy Transfer Partners started moving oil through…
Energy Transfer Partners started moving oil through the much disputed, but now completed, Dakota Access Pipeline. Capable of moving 450,000 barrels a day, it will reduce reliance on rail. It will also further pressure tanker fleets. Less than a third of all oil is transported by ocean tanker. All the oil from the Mideast comes on tankers BUT that quantity is declining – in April down 11%. Combine this with an estimated 45 very large crude carriers and 61Suez Max carriers being delivered from the shipyards and you can see depressed prices. When I was researching this, I looked up “VLCC” – very large crude carriers aka supertankers. Wikipedia tells us that they carry 2 million barrels of oil and often cannot enter port fully loaded. These ships can take on their cargo at off-shore platforms. On the other end of the journey, they often pump their cargo off to smaller tankers at designated lightering point’s off-coast.
