Rates to store oil at one of the world’s biggest trading hubs are surging, as traders globally scramble to secure space in tanks to cope with slumping demand from the coronavirus outbreak and a flood of supply from the Saudi-Russia price war.
The need for a place to park all that surplus crude is breathing new life into the market at Cushing, Oklahoma, the nation’s hub for trading of billions of dollars of crude a day and the town that bills itself “the pipeline crossroads of the world.”
Analysts estimate the glut could reach more than 1 billion barrels. Some of the excess crude will be absorbed by nations snapping up cheap oil for their strategic reserves, including India and the United States, but that will only mop up some of the supply.
Storage rates in the Caribbean, which have been weak over the past couple of years, have also strengthened over the past week, market sources said.
And oil majors have shown interest in storing oil offshore in tankers, shipping sources said, although most vessels have already been chartered for transporting crude instead as freight rates surge. “They can ask, but ship owners don’t want it,” one shipping source said.
Storage rates at Cushing, doubled over the past month, and were seen as high as about 50 cents per barrel per month by Friday, two traders familiar with the matter said. Storage for about 540,000 barrels at Plains All American’s Cushing tanks for sublease was offered at 50 cents per barrel (cpb) for a term of one year, one source said.