Low-Carbon Fuel Standard May Affect Heating Oil
Drivers on the Massachusetts Turnpike will likely be affected by the new fuel standard, but will it cover home heating oil? (image: historygradguy via flickr.com)
The Environmental Leader reported on Monday that 11 states in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic plan to adopt a low carbon fuel standard. The standard will be modeled after California’s fuel standard that requires a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from California’s transportation fuels by 10 percent by 2020.
The states signed a memorandum of understanding, which follows up on letters of intent to develop such a standard that the eleven states signed almost exactly a year ago.
Under the terms of the agreement, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland agree to develop a low carbon fuel standard to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation fuels, and possibly heating fuels.
New Device Turns Vibrations into Electricity
(image: laist.com)
Just when you thought you’d read it all when it comes to creative ways of generating energy, here comes a new one: vibrations. And anything that vibrates: highways, train stations, or even a disco dance floor, could potentially be used to garner energy.
A team of researchers has developed a micro-scaled device that uses vibrations, or piezoelectric energy, formed by the conversion of mechanical strain into electrical current, reports Clean Technica.
This device could be used to convert energy from vibrations in machines, engines, and other industrial appliances. It can also be used to detect early signs of deterioration in bridges or machines and may potentially play a role in more energy efficient maintenance for technologies such as wind turbines.
One Year Later, NJ Company Calls Biodiesel “a Success”
(image: woolleyfuel.com)
The first commercial service station in New Jersey to offer a biodiesel blend is celebrating its first anniversary, reports the Maplewood Patch.
“Running my car on Woolley’s fuel is no different than when I put regular diesel in it, except I get to feel good about filling up!” says Bear Schmidt, a longtime customer.
And Norm Woolley, Jr. is feeling pretty darned good as well. It’s been one year since the owner of Woolley’s Fuel made history as the first service station to sell biodiesel to the public in the state of New Jersey. He started with B5 biodiesel, a 5 percent blend of soy-based biodiesel with 95 percent conventional diesel fuel. To his surprise, however, customers kept requesting blends with a higher percentage of biodiesel. Right now, B30 (30 percent biodiesel, 70 percent conventional fuel) is the highest ratio blend the blending system can dispense.
Tough Times Continue for US Biofuel Producers
A worker at the Imperium Renewable biofuel refinery in Washington State, one of the largest in the country. (image: nytimes.com)
The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday about a report released this week by the National Biodiesel Board, which paints a grim picture for the future of the nascent biofuels industry if the Federal government does not extend the $1-per-gallon tax credit granted to producers in 2004. The credit is due to expire on December 31. During the fuel price spike of 2008, when gasoline prices broke $4 per gallon, the biofuels industry made great strides towards getting biodiesel off the ground commercially in the US, but with the recession holding down oil prices, bio-blends have lost their competitive advantage, and may be sunk without the federal tax credit. According to the report, currently only about 15% of the country’s production capacity is in use, producing 475 million gallons this year, a one-third decrease from last year. There are a number of factors that play into this state of affairs, not least of which is the near-total elimination of the European market for US biofuels by heavy tariffs, imposed because subsidized US fuel was undercutting the prices of European producers. The loss is problematic because nearly half of the cars in Europe operate on diesel, whereas the majority of American drivers are currently tied to gasoline. The plants of the nation’s two largest biodiesel producers—GreenHunter Energy in Houston and Imperium Renewables in Washington—were sitting idle for months, and there have been layoffs and closures at biorefineries across the country.
Chevy Volt Electric Car to Debut in California Next Year
The Chevy Volt. (image: the-grayline.com)
The much-ballyhooed Chevy Volt is set to debut in California in 2010, CNET reported Wednesday. The Volt will launch commercially in October 2010 with the 2011 model year. Prior to that, 100 Volts will be tested by three Californian utilities, which will use them as fleet cars.
The four-seat Volt is between Chevy’s Cobalt and Malibu in size. In contrast to the Toyota Prius, the Volt does not use its electric motor to supplement a gasoline engine. Instead, electricity is the primary fuel, and the Volt’s small gas engine is really just a generator—it fires up to recharge the battery, after the initial 40-mile charge is used up. All the motive power comes from the electric motor. The idea is that with most American commutes being 40 miles round trip or less—according to Chevy’s parent, GM—Volt drivers will usually travel on electricity only, without burning gasoline.
Despite a not-weak electric motor (though it’s 0-60 mph time of 9 seconds will not set hearts racing), the Volt may have trouble gaining traction—at least if people crunch the numbers on its economics. While no price has been firmly set, recently ousted GM CEO Frederick “Fritz” Henderson quoted a target price of $40,000. For comparison, the Cobalt starts at $15,000 and the Malibu at $22,000.
Assume all travel is within that magic 40-mile round-trip distance, so the Volt never has to fill up. Let’s even assume electricity is not just cheap, but free. You’d probably use 1–2 gallons of gas a day in a Cobalt or Malibu, costing around $4.50 a day. That means you could drive a Malibu 4,000 days, or 11 years, before its total cost equals the Volt’s purchase price; you could drive the Cobalt 5,555 days, or 15 years. (If you drive more than 40 miles a day, so that you have to put gas in a Volt, the comparison is worse for it.)
There may be good (mostly environmental) reasons to go electric, but at $40,000 for a mid-size car, the cost of gasoline is not one of them.
Read on for more about electric cars, hybrid and plug-in hybrid cars, and hydrogen fuel cell cars.
Heating Oil Weekly Roundup: Fuel from CO2, Australia’s Climate Bill, and Climate Change Futures
(image: economist.com)
Worried about carbon sequestration? Wish there was something you could do with carbon emissions besides store the stuff in the ground? How about putting it back in your car? Sandia National Laboratories built a machine that could let you do just that, reports Tyler Hamilton at Technology Review. Sandia’s prototype, the “sunshine to petrol” system, uses solar power to turn water and carbon dioxide into carbon monoxide or hydrogen—the building blocks of most transportation fuels.
Wrangling over the climate bill is far from over in the US, but Australia has managed to pass its own climate bill. At the Wall Street Journal’s Environmental Capital blog, Keith Johnson looks at how they did it and what the US might be able to learn. The most important lesson might be that environmental ambition will have to be tempered to win over political opponents.
As the Copenhagen conference appears likely to come to an anticlimactic resolution, the International Panel on Climate Change has issued a new report—“The Copenhagen Diagnosis”—intended to spur action. Elizabeth Kolbert has the details at Yale Environment 360, but the central message is that climate change is worse than we thought. On the other side of the debate is Sen. James Inhofe, who is calling for an investigation of the “so-called ‘consensus’ of global warming,” reports John Broder at Green Inc.
Here at HeatingOil.com we talk a lot about futures markets (especially when it comes to heating oil futures), and we’ve talked a lot about climate change, so if someone puts into place a climate change futures market as proposed by economist Robin Hanson and supported by Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight, we’ll be ready to cover it. But such a market wouldn’t necessarily be a transparent reflection of people’s true beliefs about climate change, as Matthew Yglesias of ThinkProgress points out.
Heating Oil Company Brings Biofuel to New Jersey
A truck driver fills up at Dixon Brothers’ pump that dispenses both conventional diesel and biodiesel. (image: Dawn Benko via dailyrecord.com)
This week, Dixon Brothers became the first fuel provider to install a biodiesel fueling station in Morris County, New Jersey, the Daily Record reported on Wednesday. Customers can now fill their cars and trucks with a blend of conventional diesel and a domestically produced soybean-based fuel, mixing the two according to their own specifications. Dixon Brothers is offering the biodiesel at five cents more per gallon than regular diesel fuel, which—though a tough sell given the gloomy economy—has still attracted many customers.
The Pierson family, which owns and operates Dixon Brothers, has invested $25,000 into its biodiesel operation. The fuel is kept in a heated storage tank, alongside the traditional diesel fuel, and fed through pipes to the self-service pump outside. David Levitt, the general manager of Dixon Brothers, says that the company is pitching its product to various municipalities in the area, along with information about the state’s Biodiesel Fuel Rebate Program, which offers rebates to government entities meant to encourage them to fuel their construction vehicles, police cars, and school buses with biodiesel. “It took longer and cost more than anyone thought, but it works and we’re the only guys in the market place that has it, Levitt said. “We’re proud of that, that we are ahead of the curve.” Read More »
Biofuels Set to Power Commercial Flights by 2010
(image: a.abcnews.com)
Efforts to introduce aviation biofuel to commercial flights are going international. On September 24 HeatingOil.com reported that California-based BioJet Corp. made a deal to sell four million barrels of aviation biofuel to Las Vegas oil and fuel broker E85. Now, such efforts to reduce the carbon footprint of commercial airliners appear to be catching on.
Alternative Energy News reported on October 27 that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) plans to introduce biofuel to commercial aviation as early as next year. The IATA, an association comprised of over 230 airlines and representing 93 percent of scheduled international air traffic, claims that the use of biofuel could reduce airline carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent. Additionally, biofuel could be easily introduced since conventional fuel and biofuel can be blended, requiring no engine alteration.
Should the introduction of biofuels to commercial flight prove successful and decrease the need for jet fuel, it is likely that overall crude oil demand will diminish and would help reduce the price of crude and petroleum products, including heating oil.
Tesla EV Sets New Record, Travelling 313 Miles on a Single Charge
Co-drivers Simon Hackett and Emilis Prelgauska pose with the Roadster after breaking the record. A map of their trip in Central Australia appears in the background. (image: teslamotors.com)
The Tesla Roadster, a sexy cross between a Prius and a Ferrari, is the fastest electric vehicle on the market. And after setting the world distance record at this year’s Global Green Challenge, it’s also the most efficient. As TreeHugger.com reported this week, Simon Hackett and co-driver Emilis Prelgauska drove 313 miles (501 km) on a single charge, beating the previous record—set by another Tesla during the Rallye Monte Carlo d’Energies Alternatives—by over 70 miles.
If you haven’t seen a Tesla Roadster, it looks like something James Bond would drive if he gave up spying and moved to Silicon Valley. The standard Roadster can hit 60 mph in 3.9 seconds, which means that it can keep pace with a Porsche 911 Carrera; it also runs on a 53 kWh lithium-ion battery, which means that when the other guy is paying 50 bucks to fill up his Porsche, you can just plug your Tesla in at home. Then again, the Roadster goes for $100,000, so if you drive one, you’re probably not worried about scrimping on gas.
The Tesla’s new record at the Global Green Challenge demonstrates that an electric vehicle can in fact travel long distances on a single charge (and do so in style). To get the most out of the car’s battery, Hackett and Prelgauska kept the Roadster’s speed at around 35 mph—which seems a shame, given the Tesla’s high-performance capability. But then again, the drivers weren’t going for a land-speed record.
T. Boone Pickens Finds Allies in Harry Reid, Al Gore
Pickens on stage with Reid and Gore at a clean energy summit. (image: zimbio.com)
T. Boone Pickens is a most unlikely darling of environmentalists.
T. Boone Pickens is a billionaire who made most of his fortune by purchasing and selling shares in energy companies. But, as detailed by Kambiz Foroohar for Bloomberg, Pickens is now touting the Pickens Plan, which would use natural gas to power the 6.5 million diesel trucks which drive up and down America’s roads. By doing so, Pickens says that the United States can save 2.7 million barrels of oil per day, which is over half of what the country imports on a daily basis from OPEC.
A History of Solar Energy
A solar-powered car designed at MIT. (image: worldculturepictorial.com)
If you think solar energy is a modern concept, think again: Newsweek has compiled a comprehensive slide show documenting the history of solar power, beginning with the Romans who warmed their bathhouses with strategically placed windows.
Skip to the 19th century, when it was the fear of coal shortages that prompted a surge of interest in solar technology. French inventor and mathematician Augustin Mouchot created a solar machine that produced ice for the 1878 Paris Exhibition and later a solar engine that was used to power a printing press.
Although the 1970s oil embargo was the real motivator behind a serious investment of solar energy as a viable alternative to oil and petroleum, there have been other interesting and lesser-known milestones in the evolution of solar power including:
o The first modern solar cell was unveiled at Bell Laboratories in 1954. The cell used a silicon semiconductor to convert light into electricity.
o The first solar-powered satellite, Vanguard 1, was launched in 1958. (And nearly all spacecraft since then have used solar energy to help perform their missions.)
o The first solar-powered calculator was created in 1978.
o President Jimmy Carter put a solar heating system on the roof of the White House. It was later removed by President Ronald Reagan.
o The first solar plant to provide electricity to a public utility was built in the Mojave Desert in 1981.
o GM’s solar car, the Sunraycer, won the first Solar Challenge auto race in 1987.
o In 1987, FAFCO introduced Hot2o, the first lightweight panels that homeowners can install themselves.
o Scientists created plastic solar-cell strips that can be wrapped around portable devices or woven into power-producing clothing.
o In 2007, Portugal builds the world’s largest solar power plant; 40 percent of the country’s electricity currently comes from renewable resources.
First Draft of Senate’s Climate Bill Has More Ambitious Emission-Reducing Targets
Sens. John Kery and Barbara Boxer, co-sponsors of the Senate's climate bill. (image: csmonitor.com)
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the Senate is ready to unveil a version of the climate bill that was recently passed by the House of Representatives. The Senate bill, co-authored by Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), calls for deeper reductions in greenhouse gas emissions than the Waxman-Markey bill, and sets a limit on the cost of carbon allowances.
Though the Boxer-Kerry bill is still in the early stages and will likely change as other interests weigh in, the reduction calendar is an aggressive one. Compared with the Waxman-Markey bill’s 17 percent, the Senate bill calls for cutting the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020, and 83 percent by 2050.
According to the Post, “environmentalists have hailed the bill as an ambitious effort to address global warming while providing some reassurances to the U.S. business community.” There are provisions included in the bill aimed at controlling speculation in the carbon markets, as well as making sure the price a carbon allowance does not exceed $28. Each allowance costs the amount that a company would have to pay to offset each ton of carbon they produce. Read More »
Better Place Electric Vehicle Company Follows Cell Phone Buying Model for Cars and Mileage
The interior of a Better Place EV. (image: betterplace.com)
Better Place is one of the world’s leading electric-vehicle (EV) providers. Next year the company will conduct its first cross-country road test, leading up to the launch of a new line of consumer-ready vehicles in Israel, Denmark, and Australia.
According to founder and chief executive Shai Agassi, who appeared on The Colbert Report last Tuesday (watch the video below), the company’s business model borrows much from the cell-phone industry. Just as cell-phone users can buy an inexpensive phone and pay for service minutes, Better Place will offer drivers an inexpensive EV as long as they pay regular driving fees. The minutes-to-miles analogy is quite telling: in important ways, the EV bears more resemblance to an iPhone than to a Ford Explorer. This is because EVs are completely oil-free. Unlike, say, the Toyota Prius, which on average reduces gas-dependency by 20%, the EV will operate 100% independently of the pump.
Essential to the EV is the lithium-ion battery, which can power the typical sedan for 100 miles per charge. Lithium-ion batteries can store significantly more energy and generate twice the power per unit volume than the nickel-metal batteries used in today’s hybrids. To ensure that drivers will be able to travel freely, Better Place will offer a ‘Car Network’—a series of charging centers and battery suppliers stationed throughout the country. This way, drivers will have the option of recharging their battery or purchasing a new one (both will presumably be included in their regular fee).
Though Agassi did not disclose plans to launch the EV in the United States, he did speculate that by 2011 a significant number of vehicles will be on the road worldwide.
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Shai Agassi | ||||
|
||||
Major Deal For Bio Jet Fuel Shows Future of Commercial Flight is Green
Jatropha pods and seeds--the future fuel of commercial flight? (image: thewoodmarket.com)
Santa Barbara-based BioJet Corp. will be selling four million barrels of aviation biofuel to Las Vegas oil and fuel broker E85, the Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday.
Because it is projected that jet biofuel will be approved for use by the end of 2010, BioJet Chief Executive Mitch Hawkins said that the agreement most likely will begin in 2011 and go into effect over two years. He also said that the contract is a milestone in providing bio jet fuel to the commercial aviation industry and that it represents a major step for the company in achieving its goal of providing 30 million barrels of bio jet fuel annually.
The aviation term for bio jet fuel is “Bio-SPK,” which stands for Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene. BioJet’s product is made with seeds from the jatropha plant, a multipurpose crop native to Central and South America.
Hugh Canady, Chairman of E85, was pleased to be an early adopter of the worldwide aviation bio jet commodity chain. Both companies said that they expect demand for aviation biofuels to exceed 280 million barrels annually, and said that they expect jatropha to be the primary aviation biofuel feedstock, at least for the foreseeable future.
Bio-SPK is being certified for commercial use by the American Society forTesting and Materials International (ASTMI).
Q & A With Fuel Director Josh Tickell
Josh Tickell, director of the documentary film Fuel. (image: thefuelfilm.com)
by Rachel Deahl
Environmental activist Josh Tickell has written two books (From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank and Biodiesel America), launched a non-profit (The Veggie Van Organization), and driven cross country in a vehicle powered by frying oil—all in the name of spreading the word about biofuel. A biofuel evangelist, (“biofuel” refers to any fuel made from a naturally grown—biological—source) Tickell still felt that he hadn’t done enough to spread the word about alternative energy sources. With that in mind, he decided to make a documentary. Eleven years and a graduate film degree later, Tickell is publicizing his Sundance standout documentary, Fuel. The multi hyphenate talked to HeatingOil.com about the latest advances in biofuels, America’s dirty water supply, and why he’s still an optimist when it comes to fixing the country’s addiction to foreign oil. Read the HeatingOil.com review of Fuel here.
HO.com: You have extensive experience as an environmental activist—and got quite a lot of press for driving around the country in the Veggie Van, a vehicle run entirely on used vegetable oil. But did you have any background as a filmmaker? How did Fuel the film come about?
JT: The movie came from a desire to spread this message to more people, faster, in a more effective way - with the aim of creating a tipping point for green energy. After driving the veggie van around and writing two books, I realized there had to be a movie made about the issue of green energy and sustainability. I actually went back to school to get an MFA in film (from FSU).
HO.com: One thing the film does really well, in my opinion, is lay out the complex and far-reaching geo-political consequences of our reliance on oil as our main energy source. Having made this film, and having talked to Americans about this topic while driving the Veggie Van, do you think there are a lot of misconceptions about just how damaging our country’s reliance on foreign oil is? What’s the biggest misconception, if there is one?
JT: We don’t relate to our energy as information or science. We relate to it as mythology. Think of all the common myths we have - petroleum comes from dinosaurs, it will never run out, the oil companies are sitting on top of hundreds of years of oil etc. It follows that biofuels, which span so much science and politics, are too complex to fit into today’s energy mythology. It’s easier just to label them as ‘bad’ and call it a day. That’s how most people react to biodiesel and biofuels in general - as evil creations of the agribusiness empire (sigh). Read More »
Camelina: the Latest Source of Biofuel
The camelina plant. (image: physorg.com)
It’s the latest biofuel oilcrop you haven’t heard of: camelina. An oilseed crop in the brassica family, Camelina sativa, is a distant relative to canola, mustard, and broccoli. As theoildrum.com recently reported, in February 2009, Japan Airlines conducted a 90-minute test flight, operating a 747-300 partially powered by fuel derived from camelina, developed by Sustainable Oils, Inc.
The small-seeded crop came to the U.S. by way of Europe, although it started out in Central Asia and the Mediterranean. Historically used for cooking, the crop’s hardy, fast-growing, short-seasoned characteristics excited farmers, as did the plant’s potential as another source of omega-3 fatty acids. However, scientists at Montana State University saw camelina, which thrives on little water and cold climates, as an alternative to soybeans and other oil crops for biofuel production. Read More »
Cheap Heating Oil and Cheap Ice Cream Outside Boston–What’s the Catch?
An ice cream truck commissioned by Clickfil.com will be selling 50¢ ice cream this weekend. (image: jennibrownwrites.com)
Clickfil.com, a new online heating oil delivery company, announced in a press release that was published by Boston.com on Friday that customers in parts of Massachusetts can buy discounted heating oil from them beginning in October. Customers in the area including Arlington, Lexington, Medford, Winchester, and Woburn can save roughly 30 cents per gallon over buying their oil through traditional oil delivery companies, Clickfil claims. The Web-based service claims to be able to do this by “optimizing delivery routes, going virtually paperless and focusing its effort entirely on the delivery of heating oil. And just in case a $0.30/gallon discount isn’t enough, Clickfil is offering customers who pre-register for the service the chance to win a free tank of oil ($550 value) and is also sending around an ice cream truck to sell discounted ice cream.
Who is Clickfil, and what’s the catch?
Let’s start with “who is”: according to the aptly named website whois.com, Clickfil’s Internet domain is registered to individuals that hold Irving Oil email addresses. Irving Oil is one of Canada’s largest full-service heating oil companies. They sell oil to retail customers (including homeowners) in Eastern Canada, Quebec, and parts of New England: Maine, New Hampshire (where U.S. marketing offices are located), and Vermont. Massachusetts, though, is a new venue for them. Read More »
Cash for Clunkers Program to End Monday
(image: nydailynews.com)
The Wall Street Journal reported today that Obama’s $3 billion ‘Cash For Clunkers’ program would end on Monday, weeks earlier than expected. High consumer demand drained the program of resources, as some auto dealers still wait on reimbursement checks. According to a senior administration official, The White House will not be seeking congressional approval to extend the program at this time.
As reported by HeatingOil.com earlier this month, the Cash For Clunkers program was wildly successful. By offering owners of fuel-inefficient cars rebates of $3,500 or $4,500 towards the purchase of a new fuel-efficient car, the Obama administration hoped to jump start the economy while getting gas guzzling vehicles off the road.
It worked, and then some.
Heating Oil Impact: As American drivers switch over to more efficient vehicles, demand for gasoline and diesel will recede, lowering heating oil prices in the long-term.
US Imports Decline as More Oil Goes into Sea Storage, Putting Upward Pressure on Heating Oil Prices
Oil supertankers unloading cargo. (image: worsleyschool.net)
Forbes reported on Thursday that U.S. imports of crude oil have declined as traders store more oil offshore in supertankers. Crude oil imports decreased by more than 1.4 million barrels per day, to their lowest level in almost a year. Meanwhile, the amount of crude oil stored offshore rose from between 50 to 60 million barrels to 70 million and rising. (In addition, other petroleum products, including heating oil, have also been cached offshore.)
The stockpiling is being driven by the market condition known as contango, in which the price for future delivery exceeds the price for spot, or immediate, delivery. That allows traders and investors to commit to supplying oil at higher price later while buying it now on the relative cheap, locking in a profit. In anticipation of future sales at higher prices, traders have been stockpiling oil. Because there are currently more supertankers than there is need for them, owing to the decreased global demand for oil, the cost to lease supertankers has been declining, making renting multi-hundred thousand ton ships to simply drift around, storing oil, an attractive proposition for those with sufficient funds.
The act of pulling oil from circulation will decrease the supply of oil. At the same time, since the commodities market, like any market, is driven by what people are willing to pay, as traders bid against each other to lock up oil for future delivery, they are increasing demand. These two factors will almost certainly conspire to increase the price of both crude and heating oil, resulting in greater costs to heat your home in the next few months.
Oil Tankers Face Rough Seas in Time of Low Demand, Helping to Push Down Oil Prices
(image: xmb.stuffucanuse.com)
Supertanker shipping companies are making less money—and in many cases, losing money—in 2009, Forbes reported on August 13th. For example, as shipping rates fell 25 percent in July, to a level barely more than one-quarter last summer’s rates, Nordic American Tanker Shipping reported a net loss of $137,000 while Overseas Shipholding Group lost $8.8 million.
The culprit for these loses is reduced demand: when less oil is being consumed, less oil needs to be shipped. At the same time, magnifying the impact, businesses will pay less per ton for shipping when crude oil prices are $70 a barrel than when they were $140 a barrel. The double whammy of lower rates and less volume is causing considerable trouble for shipping companies.
Shipping companies have had some good news: the continuing oil market state of contango, in which the spot, or immediate delivery, price of oil is less than the price for future delivery, has caused supertankers to be leased for mid-term storage. The ships don’t go anywhere; instead, they simply store oil bought now for sale later at a profit. At present, 100 million barrels of petroleum products, including heating oil, are being stored in tankers. Most of it is being stored by oil companies, but at least two investment banks have gotten into the act, supplementing their “paper holdings” of petroleum products for future delivery with physical stocks of oil. However, with so much oil in storage, and with spot prices holding above $70 despite weak demand (a situation many blame on speculators), the demand for floating storage has also softened. Read More »
