Oman plans floating storage for DME crude delivery

Singapore: Oman Tank Terminal Company (OTTCO) plans to start operating a floating storage unit later this year to ease trade of crude oil futures on the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), trade sources said on Tuesday.

The storage will increase monthly trade volumes on the DME by 2 million barrels and help curb price volatility, they said.

OTTCO, majority owned by the Oman Oil Company (OOC), will lease storage space on-board a Very Large Crude Carrier, via a tender process to four companies for a year, they said. Each company will have space to store one cargo, or 500,000 barrels.