XPost: can.internet.highspeed   
   From: gwelsh@spamcop.net   
      
   Geoffrey Welsh wrote:   
   > I don't buy that stockpiling rumour.   
      
   I stand (sit?) corrected.  In today's Globe and Mail, Emma Farge reports on   
   "Oil product tankers idling in quiet waters of the world's oceans":   
      
   "Banks, oil majors and trading companies with access to cheap credit [...]   
   are buying gas oil, storing it on idle tankers in sheltered parts of the   
   English Channel, Singapore and the Mediterranean and selling it at a higher   
   price later."   
      
   However, I would observe two things:   
      
   (1) The contents of the tanker are not crude oil, they are refined products   
   such as Diesel and heating fuel;   
      
   (2) The estimated volume of refined oil products in floating storage is...   
   wait for it... 100 million barrels.  No, wait, there's another 35 million   
   barrels of crude oil stored, too.   
      
   I have to admit I'm floored: I would never have thought that so many ships   
   would be occupied just holding oil products.  On the other hand, even if we   
   assume that it takes two or more barrells of crude oil to make a barrell of   
   those refined products, we're still only talking about a few days' worth of   
   worldwide production, which should not be enough to pull of a long-term   
   market manipulation.   
      
   The article goes on to say that these tankers will probably be offloaded   
   if/when demand picks up and/or refineries are shut down, and that they   
   should cushion the impact of either.  Not that we'll see that at the pumps.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)