The phenomenon gives tangible support to long-held predictions that surging production will push the market into surplus. While China has kept the excess hidden for months by scooping up cheap barrels for its strategic reserves, the market finally seems to have reached a tipping point.

Three massive oil tankers have diverted from China’s main crude port Rizhao after President Donald Trump sanctioned the Rizhao Shihua Crude Oil Terminal for importing Iranian oil amid his renewed beef with the second-largest economy on earth,

Over 1.2 billion barrels of oil are currently in transit on tankers, driven by increased supply from OPEC+ and non-OPEC+ exporters, longer voyages, and rising production from the Americas.

Product tankers have become unwittingly involved in fuel shipments into Mexico in a trade linked to drug cartels. A Reuters investigation has demonstrated how mainstream vessels were drawn into a giant tax dodge as charterers misdeclared cargoes.

Chevron enjoys unusual sway in socialist-led Venezuela, positioning the energy colossus to gain from whatever comes of the crisis between Washington and Caracas.