Hellenic Shipping News: Third of Chartered VLCCs are for Floating Storage

09 Jul 2015: “VLCC chartering for floating storage in Middle East continues to grow, says consultant agency Poten & Partners, despite stabilisation of the oil price. “Several charter contracts for the largest tankers, VLCC, are for deposits of oil, according to numbers from Poten & Partners, with an acceleration of the trend in the last four to six weeks. ‘Surprisingly enough, it appears that the utilisation of VLCCs for floating storage has increased in recent weeks,’ writes Poten & Partners in a new report, adding that Iraq and Iran are seeing the most activity. ‘Vessel tracking information reveals that about a third of the vessels taken on time charter earlier in the year are now used for floating storage,’ the report adds. ‘Most of these are in the Arabian Gulf, but there also some in Singapore, West Africa and the Mediterranean.'”