More Oil Due Despite Glut

More than a dozen oil tankers from the Middle East and Far East, each with 1.5 million barrels of unsold crude, are headed toward already oil glutted ports in the United States and Europe, trade sources said Friday.

Oil industry analysts said the flood of new oil, a product of OPEC’s boosted output while it argues about production cuts, will put more more pressure on prices, sending U.S. oil below $10 a barrel.

“There is a tidal wave of oil traveling toward Europe and America in long-haul crude tankers from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Indonesia and other points,” said Charles Maxwell, oil analyst with Cyrus J. Lawrence.

Oil industry sources in New York and Houston said they were counting a dozen or more large tankers on their way to the United States Gulf Coast from Qatar, Australia and Indonesia.

With a traffic jam of tankers in the southern United States, cargoes at sea with no port of call will probably head toward Europe, oil traders said.

The oil should arrive in Mediterranean and Northern European ports over the next few weeks, depressing already beleaguered North Sea oil prices.

Confirmed trades show that several cargoes from Africa are on their way to Europe as well.

Analysts said the large number of cargoes is a result of OPEC’s boost in output while its members argue about production cuts. They pointed out that once oil is pumped from the ground, it has to go somewhere.