The ships are being used as storage tanks, not so much as transport vessels.
Many of the “tankers” couldn’t get insurance to sail due to age and condition. Their holdings will likely have to be transferred back to a tank terminal or to another tanker.
Interesting indeed!
Doing what they can to PUSH UP the price of crude and gasoline prices. This mornings’ WSJ talks of rising prices on crude due to “OUTPUT CUTS”. A total ruse...while the glut oil sits in tankers, etc.
Back in the OPEC oil embargo of 1073 it was difficult to get gasoline.
Gas stations often had empty tanks and gas purchases were rationed in various ways. Sometimes the amount allowed was limited and most people could only purchase on odd-even days or by the odd or even number on your license plate.
Even though fuel was in short supply everywhere in the US there were photos of loaded tankers anchored offshore.
There were so many loaded tankers sitting idle that news outlets reported there were few empty tankers available.
The tankers were being used for storage offshore as they waited for prices to go up before they were cleared to unload.
And there is a whole slew of Iranian tankers waiting to be let loose.
I see many ships enroute.
200MB floating around vs. a world wide daily oil and liquid fuels consumption of 96MB/day. Say crude is half the 96MB/day consumption, which generously assumes that all crude goes into refineries, that’s 4 days WW consumption.
Is the price of oil so illiquid that holding out 4 days supply crashes the price from ~$90 to ~$30?
IMHO, the demand has collapsed, i.e. the WW economy sucks, and that is why the prices of most commodities have cratered.
Our fearless leaders just don’t want to spook the serfs.
I imagine there is a similar map for interstellar ships trading back and forth out in the galaxy.