The industry’s biggest ships, so-called very large crude carriers, are currently predicted to earn $31,000 a day in 2017, according to 13 analyst forecasts compiled by Bloomberg this month. As OPEC discusses the deepest cuts to oil production in years, one group of people in the energy supply chain are preparing reductions of their own: analysts paid to monitor how much crude tankers can earn from hauling cargoes. The producer club’s members are preparing for a Nov. 30 meeting in Vienna to limit their output to as little as 32.5 million barrels a day. While the measures would help prop up oil prices stuck in a 2 1/2 year slump, they could also remove enough output to fill five supertankers a week, just as a ballooning fleet of the vessels is starting to drag on freight rates. “Forecasts will be reduced,” said Erik Stavseth from Arctic Securities ASA in […]