Tanker Ships Forced To Change Course As Gas Glut Returns

America’s East Coast gasoline glut is back and it’s so big that tankers bound for New York are being forced to detour mid-ocean toward other destinations.

The region’s record inventories have grown so large that at least five tankers bringing cargoes to New York in January were forced head elsewhere while en route. Ship charters show European plants directing more of what they produce to Africa. The stockpile buildup has depressed both trans-Atlantic shipping rates and refiners’ profits from making the fuel.

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TheSteve - 2/3/2017 12:44:38 PM

+2 Boost

Yeah, and that's in addition to the tankers that are ALREADY anchored off-shore because the state-side storage facilities are full and cannot receive their loads. That's been going on for many months.

One one hand, this looks like great news, that the US *might* be becoming less dependent on foreign oil, that it *might* be slowly weaning itself off burning fossil fuels and slowly switching to cleaner, renewable energy sources. Maybe.

Mind you, if the oil-producing countries drop the price substantially, that'll affect world oil commodity prices, and it'll inspire domestic consumers to buy the vehicles they really want -- large, gas guzzling SUVs -- which will serve to ease or eliminate the oil glut, and also make it less feasible (AKA not cost-effective) for US and Canada to extract and refine our own oil, thereby crippling the domestic oil industry and switching us back to consuming cheap foreign oil.

It's a crap-shoot where this might take us.

Holydude - 2/5/2017 11:49:28 AM

+2 Boost

With the advent of battery technology, it's only a matter of time before petro powered cars become a minority.