Maritime Industry – Covid-19 Update and Opportunities While Covid19 pandemic has resulted in accelerated drop in petroleum products consumption globally, pace of decline in the production was slower. This mismatch led to excess availability of crude and petroleum products during March and April 2020. Impact of this excessive inventory led to a drastic drop in product price and Contango in oil market. These factors led to sudden spurt in storage demand resulting in highest ever charter hire rates for all categories of oil tankers. VLCC tanker spot rates went up from US$30,000/day in March to US$200-250,000/day in April as these large vessels were converted to floating storage. US Energy Information Administration (EIA), in their Short Term Energy Outlook in May 2020, have indicated that global inventory builds will be the largest in first half on 2020. EIA estimates that inventory builds rose at a rate of 6.6 million barrels per day (b/d) in the first quarter and will incr