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June 25, 2008

Oil? No Oil Here. Oh ... You Mean _That_ Oil!

While many people are focused on the silly idea that speculators (the von Trapps!) are the primary cause of current oil market advances, what if a more useful thing to think about was hoarding? What hoarding, specifically? Well, there are those supertankers hanging around in the Persian Gulf.

According to Bloomberg, there is currently tanker capacity of at least 30-million barrels parked off the Iranian coast. That is about five months worth of the proposed Saudi boost to crude supplies.

Here is a map from Bloomberg, and it is followed by a Google Maps satellite shot of oil tankers lounging about double-parked in that general area:

Here's an (undated) satellite shot of the above area:

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