Update On The Oil Tankers Off Long Beach Port -- Just A Drop In The Ocean -- Much More Stored Offshore Elsewhere -- April 29, 2020

Link here.

Data points:

• drone footage released on April 23, 2020, by the US Coast Guard showed a total of 27 large oil tankers floating off the coast of southern California
• the vessels had reportedly been turned into storage tanks while waiting to dock at port
• spokesperson says twenty tankers in the area
• fourteen of them expected to remain there indefinitely or "for along time"
• six tankers should leave within the next five days
• five more tankers are expected to arrive this week
• of those five yet-to-arrive tankers, four of them are set to unload their cargo while one such vessel will anchor for a "long time"
• Reuters says 160 million bbls of oil are currently being stored in large tankers outside shipping ports due to a lack of onshore storage space
• since very large crude carriers (VLCCs) were chartered to store oil at sea in February, the number has increased to 60, and is forecast to triple in the upcoming months. The VLCCs are reportedly mostly located near Singapore and in the US Gulf Coast
• the current oversupply, which has already reached around 9 million barrels per day

I know nothing about the credibility of the linked source, but it certainly can't be any worse than CNN or The New York Times.

VLCCs / ULCCs are leasing for around $50,000 / day.

Fortunately for all involved, no risk of hurricanes.