Oil Tanker Analysts Waiting on OPEC Plot Cuts of Their Own
- Producer club’s deepest reductions in eight years to cut cargo
- Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg already lowering 2017 forecasts
The industry’s biggest ships, so-called very large crude carriers, are currently predicted to earn $31,000 a day in 2017, according to 13 analyst forecasts compiled by Bloomberg this month.
Photographer: Eddie Seal/BloombergAs OPEC discusses the deepest cuts to oil production in years, one group of people in the energy supply chain are preparing reductions of their own: analysts paid to monitor how much crude tankers can earn from hauling cargoes.
The producer club’s members are preparing for a Nov. 30 meeting in Vienna to limit their output to as little as 32.5 million barrels a day. While the measures would help prop up oil prices stuck in a 2 1/2 year slump, they could also remove enough output to fill five supertankers a week, just as a ballooning fleet of the vessels is starting to drag on freight rates.