Gas, Geopolitics and Oil Tankers at Anchor

We are at record gas prices. Those of us who live in areas that do not have the greatest public transportation systems are too aware of this phenomena. There are a lot of reasons for the high gas prices and up until a few days ago everyone has basically said that it is because of basic economics - supply and demand or advanced economics - futures trading. There is of course some truth to all of this.

In many past oil crisis there have been times when oil tankers were held at anchor waiting for the spot prices of crude to increase. Of course, a rise in the per barrel price of oil can have a significant impact on the value of a tanker full of oil. With the largest oil tankers being able to transport about 500,000 tons of crude oil and a barrel of oil weighing a little less than 300 lbs. you can see that holding a tanker at anchor for a few days can bring a significant windfall profit if the price goes up just a few bucks.

So the question of the day is - are there oil tankers currently being held at anchor during this global oil crisis - truckers in Spain are blocking access to a major city as a protest against the rising diesel costs. Also, many oil tankers being owned by independent oil companies (Companies in Panama own the largest oil tanker fleet). Are they waiting for the highest bidder, such as China or India for their services?

Tanker transportation costs/gallon of gas are very small - around $.02/gallon. This cost is much less than the taxes per gallon that the various layers of governments impose on fuel. The shipping industry itself has always been a small percentage of the fuel prices. However, there are numerous times in history when this industry was controlled or restricted in order to manipulate the value of the commodity that it transports.

Our politicians will address the oil problem in their usual day late and several dollars short manner such as tax the oil companies more (they already made $40B in profit with gas 30% cheaper than it is now).

With the consumer being at the end of the oil food chain and having little or no say in what happens in our "democracy" in Washington, it is going to be an interesting adaptation of our lifestyles to adjust to the higher oil prices.