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Thursday, January 8, 2009

"Citigroup Inc.'s commodities-trading unit followed BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc in anchoring a full oil tanker offshore northern Scotland to profit from higher prices later this year," reports Bloomberg here.

Citi's speculation subsidiary, Phibro LLC, "is keeping up to 1 million barrels" in the ship as speculators "hoard" oil hoping prices will rise. Oil inventories have been piling up as demand drops, but oil futures prices are rising as traders bet OPEC will cut production.

"Shell and BP, Europe’s largest oil companies, both have oil stored at sea near the U.K. Frontline Ltd., the world’s biggest operator of supertankers, said yesterday oil traders want to charter as many as 10 additional vessels to stockpile crude."

Posted by Joseph N. DiStefano @ 1:52 PM  Permalink | 2 comments
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  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:51 AM, 01/09/2009
    CIti? Arent they the ones who just get a whole bunch of money from the Government for a bailout? Now they are going to stick it to the people who gave them the money and profit from them. I hope those tankers sit there all year and they rot and sink to the bottom of them sea and those companies lose all their money. If I was Obama, id put a stop on their check.
    Pat c
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 10:02 AM, 01/12/2009
    manipulating the law of supply and demand for their benefit. Was it not that long ago that oil prices were through the roof? what happened to all those profits? pure greed
    tammy2


2 comments
About Joseph N. DiStefano
Joseph N. DiStefano writes this blog to feed his PhillyDeals column in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Joe has been a member of Bloomberg LP’s New York Finance Team, wrote the book “Comcasted,” taught writing at St. Joseph’s University, and studied economics and history at Penn. Reach Joe at 215-854-5194 and JoeD@phillynews.com