Nine tankers carrying as much as nine million barrels of crude are floating in the North Sea as traders can’t afford to sell the crude they have—at least not profitably enough. In May, there were seven million barrels of oil stored in tankers in the North Sea. Bloomberg reports , citing the International Energy Agency, that worldwide crude oil amounts at sea had reached 95 million barrels at the end of June, the highest since the global financial recession in 2008. However, during the 2008-2009 rise in crude oil storage at sea, traders were holding off the sales to make bigger profits – crude then was in triple-digit territory, hitting US$140 a barrel in 2008. Now they can’t afford to sell it, as prices are down once again, following API’s estimate that U.S. stockpiles have risen by 2.2 million barrels in the week to July […]