OREANDA-NEWS. A second tanker is heard being used for floating diesel storage in New York Harbor, as east coast diesel inventories reached a historic high last week.

The Iris Victoria, a Marshall Islands-flagged LR1 vessel, is heard to be provisionally chartered for floating storage in the New York Harbor region, according to sources. The vessel is expected to arrive in New York on Friday, 24 October from Sikka, India.

The charterer is heard to be a trader previously not known to have been seeking floating storage in the New York Harbor region. Two other companies were heard to be seeking storage offshore in the past few weeks.

The Jones Act does not prohibit a foreign-flagged vessel from loading and discharging at a US port as long as it's at the same terminal.

The Chinese-flagged Hua Lin Wan is thought to be used for storage after ballasting into New York Harbor last week.

Ultra-low sulphur diesel inventories on the Atlantic coast hit another all-time high last week at 47.7mn bl, according to the Energy Information Administration.