Oil companies are seeking supertankers to store 20 million barrels of crude as a collapse in the price of the commodity creates a trading opportunity last seen during the 2008-09 recession, a Greek shipping company said.

Companies inquired about booking 10 very large crude carriers for storage in the past several days, Odysseus Valatsas, the chartering manager for Dynacom Tankers Management Ltd. near Athens, said by email Friday. A "handful" have already been hired for the trade, he said, citing discussions with shipbrokers and others working in the shipping market. Dynacom's fleet can carry about 65 million barrels of oil.

Oil collapsed 48 percent in 2014 and prices for later this year are now so far above current costs that traders can make money from buying cargoes and storing them on ships, according to JBC Energy GmbH. As many as 60 million barrels could be held offshore within the next several months, the Vienna-based consultant predicted on Jan. 6. Traders stored 100 million barrels at sea in 2009, Frontline Ltd., a tanker owner, said at the time.

"It looks more and more likely that you'll see more floating storage and it's going to be good" for ship owners, Eirik Haavaldsen, a shipping analyst at Pareto Securities SA in Oslo, said by phone. "The re-emergence of floating storage is what could move the crude tanker market this year from being rather good to possibly very very good."

Read more