The Very Large Crude Carrier Bunga Kasturi Empat, chartered by Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSA), is heading to Southwold, eastern England, after loading Forties crude May 31-June 2 at Hound Point, Scotland, the traders said. One VLCC typically holds 2 million barrels of crude oil.
The supertanker is likely to float off Southwold for a while, they said.
Another VLCC, BW Lake, also chartered by Shell, has been floating off Southwold since May 23 after loading Forties at Hound Point.
Looking ahead, traders mostly expect Forties floating storage to have little room to rise further, mainly due to planned maintenance at the VLCC jetty at Hound Point.
The No.1 jetty, which can handle vessels of up to 350,000 deadweight tons, will be shut from July 1 to Sept. 30 due to maintenance works, they said.
The Hound Point terminal, which is owned and operated by BP PLC (BP), consists of two jetties, but only the No.1 jetty can berth VLCCs.
This means no VLCCs will be able to load Forties at Hound Point for three months from July 1.
It remains to be seen whether any new floaters will emerge by the end of June, traders said.
The VLCC Front Crown, chartered by ConocoPhillips (COP), is scheduled to arrive at Hound Point Friday to load Forties.
But ConocoPhillips is likely to ship this supertanker to the U.S. Gulf at a freight rate of World Scale point of 90, shipbrokers said.
Some traders said the supertanker might have an option for storage, but further details remain sketchy.