The search for storage
In the fourth of a six-part series, our trader looks back at a time when oil was the best commodity one could hold
Contango benefits anyone with access to storage because the prompt price of crude is cheaper than crude bought in the future. So it works really well for a refinery that has excess storage. When managing supply and hedging around a 200,000-barrel-a-day refinery we had crude storage of close to 2m barrels. The company had rarely kept storage completely full but the contango was too large to have empty space, and so a plan was created to secure a long-term ratable supply of crude from a Middle Eastern producer. We wanted to maintain 1.8m barrels of inventory at the refinery. As soon as we were confident enough of securing the supply, we bought front-month futures contracts and sold those we ha
Also in this section
17 February 2026
The 25th WPC Energy Congress, taking place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 26–30 April 2026, will bring together leaders from the political, industrial, financial and technology sectors under the unifying theme “Pathways to an Energy Future for All”
17 February 2026
Siemens Energy has been active in the Kingdom for nearly a century, evolving over that time from a project-based foreign supplier to a locally operating multi-national company with its own domestic supply chain and workforce
17 February 2026
Eni’s chief operating officer for global natural resources, Guido Brusco, takes stock of the company’s key achievements over the past year, and what differentiates its strategy from those of its peers in the LNG sector and beyond
16 February 2026
As the third wave of global LNG arrives, Wood Mackenzie’s director for Europe gas and LNG, Tom Marzec-Manser, discusses with Petroleum Economist the outlook for Europe’s gas market in 2026
