Buyers Scramble for Seaborne Oil as Middle East War Continues

The most immediate buffer to avoid oil supply shortages—crude in floating storage—is being depleted at a rapid rate as buyers scramble to get their hands on volumes sitting on tankers that are away from the Strait of Hormuz. Oil in floating storage has fallen to about 78 million barrels this week, from 140 million barrels at the end of last year, according to data from intelligence firm Vortexa cited by Bloomberg. Since the war in the Middle East began, the oil on water volumes have been drawing down at an estimated rate…