Wednesday, March 23, 2016

GHOST SHIPS OF THE 21st CENTURY ... ARE THEY THE OIL TANKERS?


Check out this headline from Zero Hedge: "Something strange is taking place in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean." In a few words, the story tells us that there's so much petroleum being produced in the world today that diesel markets are now saturated.

Oil tankers loaded with diesel from the U.S. are now cruising around the ocean looking for a place to sell their product - to the highest bidder. So, in effect, U.S tankers filled with diesel product are part of a growing group of ghost ships looking for ports with a strong enough price that will allow them to unload their product.

Routes of ships carrying diesel fuel from the U.S. to the world in 2016.

Conservation, fuel efficient vehicles, alternative energy sources, and, yes, fracking, are creating a glut oil environment that's changing our oil markets. What's interesting is that we may not have to go to war in the future for the oil that's necessary now to keep our economies humming.

Human advancement. What a concept.

The fact that Toyota announced a few months ago that they would no longer produce gasoline guzzling cars by 2050 should tell us that there is a bigger shift coming.

More to the point - as I pointed out months ago - there's another global structural change coming. We're watching the beginning of an economic transformation that's as big as what we saw when we went from the whip and buggy in the 19th century to the train and the automobile by the beginning of the 20th century. It took place in a span of 60 years.

The big question is, are we (you) ready for it? Will our political leaders kill it off?

Stay tuned.

- Mark 

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