World News
Glencore Charters Giant Euronav Tanker for Six Months as Floating Crude Storage
Trading company Glencore has chartered Euronav's ultra large crude carrier (ULCC) the Europe, one of the largest tankers in the world, as floating storage, according to news agency Reuters.
Glencore has booked the vessel for six months at $37,000 per day, Reuters reported Tuesday.
This month's decision by Saudi Arabia and Russia to increase crude production has driven a sharp rise in tanker rates with more cargoes on the water, and has increased demand for floating storage from companies looking to store oil bought at today's low prices.
The vessels is one of only two ULCCs in operation, both owned by Euronav.
Euronav was using its sister ship, the Oceania, as floating storage for much of 2019 to build up stocks of blending components to make very low sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) in time for IMO 2020.
The Europe was under charter with a third party until the end of 2019, and Euronav has not announced whether it has been in use for VLSFO storage since then.