Continental storage divide

European oil storage struggles as new facilities aid further growth in Asia

In this article, PE looks at the evolution of storage trends in the industry. Part II of II. European oil storage activity this year has been heavily affected by the market backwardation. By late September, Brent crude futures prices were backwardated by 20-50 cents per barrel for all delivery months, while gasoil futures prices were showing monthly backwardation of up to $3.25 a tonne along the forward price curve. Such structures removed most incentives for speculative product storage. According to the IEA, European commercial oil inventories declined to 959m barrels at the end of June from 999m barrels at the end-June 2017. The trend towards lower inventories appears to have been consiste