Oil Traders Storing Crude on Seven Tankers Off U.K.

(Bloomberg) — Oil companies are storing crude on at least seven supertankers off the coast of the U.K., enough to supply the country for more than a week, even as higher prices reduce the incentive to put more oil into storage.

Seven Very Large Crude Carriers, containing as much as 14 million barrels of North Sea crude, are anchored off Britain, according to AISLive tracking data and the median estimate of six oil traders surveyed by Bloomberg. The U.K. consumed about 1.6 million barrels of oil a day in 2008, according to government data.

Oil