Crude oil tanker rates—which fell in September to their lowest since 2003 on the key route from the Arabian Gulf to Asia—are expected to remain low until global oil demand increases, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday. Earlier this year, between March and May, crude oil tanker rates spiked as refiners rushed to snap up cheap oil cargoes when prices were in the teens, while demand for floating storage soared amid crashing demand for fuels in the pandemic. In the brief Saudi-Russian price war in March and early April, supertanker owners were the winners, as the spat coincided with the start of the lockdowns in major economies and increased the global oil glut. Shipping companies had a field day with Saudi Aramco booking tankers en masse to flood the market with oil, while traders scrambled to charter tankers for floating storage to sell at higher prices […]