Bloomberg: Gasoline, Diesel Surpass Crude in Floating Storage

“Traders are choosing to store oil products in floating tankers instead of crude oil as freezing temperatures and rising demand boost the need for distillates, Poten & Partners said in a report.  Crude oil stored in tankers fell to about 25 million barrels currently from levels exceeding 80 million barrels last year, Poten said in a report to clients last week. Floating storage for clean products such as gasoline and gasoil reached a peak in December at 80 million barrels in 127 vessels. That’s down to 57 million barrels currently, it said.  “In the early part of 2009, crude oil tankers were the bearers of most of the storage activity but as the year continued, clean product tankers made a significant emergence into such employment,” Poten said.”