Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe's largest oil company, hired a supertanker with an option to use it to store North Sea crude, according to Paris-based shipbroker Barry Rogliano Salles.

The oil company booked the Leander to collect a 2 million- barrel cargo Nov. 23, the broker said in a report late yesterday. The very large crude carrier, or VLCC, is bound for Rotterdam, according to ship-tracking data. Shell has as much as 4.2 million barrels of Forties crude, a North Sea grade, to load Nov. 23 to Dec. 7, according to the company.

North Sea January cargoes are trading at a premium of about $2.33 a barrel to December shipments, according to PVM Oil Associates Ltd. A VLCC would cost about 90 cents to $1 a barrel per month to hire for storage, according to data from shipbroker Galbraith's Ltd. That means that Shell could make as much as $1.43 a barrel, excluding financing costs, should it choose to store the crude for a month.

``If you are looking for additional space, using a VLCC might be a solution,'' said Olivier Jakob, managing director of consultant Petromatrix Gmbh in Zug, Switzerland.

Kirsten Smart, a spokeswoman for Shell in The Hague, declined to comment on the reported tanker booking when contacted by phone today.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alaric Nightingale in London at Anightingal1@bloomberg.net; Alexander Kwiatkowski in London at akwiatkowsk2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 13, 2008 10:59 EST