The oil crash just gave this industry its best quarter in 7 years
Crude oil drillers and many of the other companies in sectors that rely on oil have been punished over the past year or so by the collapse in oil prices.
The Financial Times' Joel Lewin on Tuesday highlighted data from Jefferies, which showed that supertanker daily charter rates were $48,000 in Q3, the highest since 2008.
In May, the daily rate for oil supertankers rose to the highest level for that time of year since 2008.
Demand for storage surged, since producers needed somewhere to store all the oil they were drilling.
The expensive storage was seen as more proof that there was still an imbalance between oil supply and demand, and oil prices were not likely to rebound soon.
Then in June, Morgan Stanley's head of energy commodity research Adam Longson noted that there were full tankers of oil sitting on the Atlantic Basin, waiting to be sold. Longson said it was a "worrying sign" for oil prices in the fall.
And so, as low oil prices forced drillers to downsize their workforces and become more efficient, the supply glut gave oil storage companies and refiners big paychecks.
The FT notes the 12-month price rally of storage companies like Nordix American Tankers (+87%) and Euronav (+34%).
Their forthcoming earnings releases will be something to watch.
Head over to the FT for the full story »