Thousands of beachgoers flock each summer to the picturesque beaches of Southwold, an English resort town renowned for its mellow atmosphere, colourful seaside huts and old-fashioned pier. But if the price of oil doesn't keep rising, next season's vacationers will find the postcard-perfect coastal vistas marred by dozens of oil supertankers anchored off shore.
The tankers started appearing off the coast several months ago and on a recent day, six could be seen on the horizon through the cloudy, squally weather. That was just the tip of the iceberg, with ship-tracking websites showing about two dozen tankers moored in the sea between Southwold and Lowestoft, 16 kilometres to the north.
Some local residents and officials say they've counted nearly 40 at times, and at night their twinkling navigation lights make it look a city is floating offshore. But residents are worried that with so many, the risks of a possible collision and oil spill are magnified, which would devastate the local economy.
"If you've got a spillage of oil or whatever along this coastline, it would be catastrophic for us, for the business, because people come here for the beach, the walks, the wildlife," said Pamela O'Hara, who works at the Orwell Bookshop on Southwold's main street.
"All they're doing is sitting. But on the other hand, if anything did go wrong it would be complete disaster for us as a business," she said.
The flotilla is a byproduct of the global recession, as oil companies and trading companies have found it cheaper to store excess crude oil and oil-derived products offshore in anticipation of higher oil prices this year. Oil traders are betting that crude prices, though yesterday's price of about $82 (U.S.) a barrel is not much higher than it was at the beginning of 2010.
So they're stashing the oil in tankers in anticipation of higher prices this year that will cover the cost of storing it, a situation known as a contango. Those supertankers, which are hundreds of metres long and capable of carrying hundreds of thousands of barrels, are being parked in Sole Bay in the North Sea off Southwold.
The calm waters off one of England's most easterly points have always drawn a handful of big ships to anchor there, but locals say it has never been more than two or three.
Ms. O'Hara and others in town say that revenue doubles or triples in the summer months, when the town's population swells to 6,000 from about 1,000 in the off-season as visitors come to stay at the area's numerous hotels, bed-and-breakfast inns and camping and trailer sites.
Local officials say the tourism industry brings in about £25-million ($39-million Canadian) a year for Southwold and the surrounding villages, which are about 185 km northeast of London.
Simon Tobin, who sits on the town and district councils, says he's concerned about the potential for spills during so-called ship-to-ship transfers, in which smaller vessels pull up to the supertankers, which are too big for the area's ports, and transfer their cargo of oil. The transfers are carried out several times a month.
He's also worried about other tankers, some of which are older and only single-hulled, that are just sitting in the sea using it as a parking lot while awaiting orders to move on. Mr. Tobin says local authorities are not equipped to deal with a spill and he wants the British government to tighten regulations on the transfers while encouraging other tankers to go elsewhere.
Stephen Bournes, the owner and managing director of Southwold's pier, says he too is worried.
"Human error will happen at some point. If we get a spillage, then my trade's going to drop considerably," Mr. Bournes said.
"You're not going to come on holiday to a beach that has oil washing up on it. Generally people aren't very pleased with them being here and they're not seen as an attraction to the vista, no one really wants them."
Others in town say they're not so concerned about the tankers, which bring business to neighbouring communities when local ships go out to service them and crews come ashore to eat and sleep.
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency says draft legislation is being submitted to Parliament later this year that would call for tighter controls on transfers, including ship inspections.
Bill Box, a spokesman for Intertanko, which represents 270 independent tanker owners, said his members are only following orders from their clients: oil companies and traders.
"If the U.K. authorities and Southwold decide to boot out tanker storage, then they will simply go elsewhere," he said.
Mr. Box said the average supertanker charter rate is about $30,000 (U.S.) to $50,000 a day, a long way down from highs of about $200,000 18 months ago, though still higher than the low of about $10,000 last year.