Qatar has joined other Persian Gulf nations in reviving crude oil sales, with regional producers cranking up activity as peace talks between the US and Iran progress.
A shipment of the nation’s al-Shaheen grade was sold this week to Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化), which sought supplies for August to September, according to traders familiar with the matter.
The volumes were sold by trading house Mercuria Energy Group Ltd, they said.
Photo: Bloomberg
Some of the same grade, as well as Qatar’s Marine and Land varieties, were also sold to an Indian refiner last week, the traders said.
The deals represent the first observed transactions for Qatari crude to refiners in Asia since the war began, although the country has been much more active in reviving production and exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Oil futures have cratered this month — with the Brent benchmark erasing all of its wartime gains — as the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz enables sales and shipments to resume. The increased activity has seen crude exports from the United Arab Emirates rebound, as well as sales from Iraq and Kuwait.
Brent oil yesterday pushed lower for a fourth session, dropping below US$72.48 a barrel — its prewar closing price — before fluctuating around that level, while West Texas Intermediate crude hovered below US$70.
Qatar is now able to get LNG tankers into and out of the Persian Gulf through the strait.
It plans to rapidly boost production of the super-chilled fuel once the waterway fully reopens, restoring most export capacity in two months, other people familiar with the matter said.
There has been increased tanker activity near Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility.
The Kiku, a Greek-owned supertanker, is loading 2 million barrels of Qatari crude from the al-Shaheen floating storage and offloading terminal, ship-tracking data showed.
Kiku appeared in the Persian Gulf on Friday last week, after last broadcasting from the Gulf of Oman on June 13, making the large crude carrier one of the first mainstream tankers to enter the gulf since the US-Iran deal.
“There is a growing conviction that, with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, supply will exceed demand in both the near and medium term,” PVM Oil Associates analyst Tamas Varga said, adding that there has been a “profound change in market sentiment” in the past few weeks.
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