Morgan Stanley Said to Seek Supertanker to Store Oil (Update1) [View All]

[Joanne98]

Source: Bloomberg



Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley is seeking a supertanker to store crude oil, joining Citigroup Inc. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc in trying to profit from higher prices later in the year, four shipbrokers said.

The bank, the second-biggest U.S. securities firm until becoming a bank-holding company in September, has yet to find a suitable vessel, said one of the brokers. The shipbrokers asked not to be identified because the information is private. Carlos Melville, a spokesman for Morgan Stanley in London, declined to comment, in an e-mail today.

“There’s a lot of people looking for storage,” Denis Petropoulos, London-based head of tankers at Braemar Shipping Services Plc, the world’s second-largest publicly traded shipbroker, said by phone.

Frontline Ltd., the world’s biggest owner of supertankers, yesterday said about 80 million barrels of crude oil are being stored in tankers, the most in 20 years. A purchaser could buy oil now, keep it for months at sea and fetch better prices by selling oil futures that are higher than the spot price.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aRo2aV9.jLhI&refer=home

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So the rumor is true. They are storing crude in tankers to keep the price from collasping. So much for the so-called "free market".