At least five supertankers carrying a total 10 million barrels of Saudi oil loaded from Ras Tanura have exited the Strait of Hormuz, with Saudi Aramco switching to spot pricing to speed sales in Asia, according to trade sources and shipping data.
Saudi Aramco resumed loadings from Ras Tanura, the world’s largest oil port, on Friday after a halt of nearly four months. The Saudi national oil company is ramping up loadings and shipments to Asia, adding to a prompt glut that has depressed Brent crude to about $70 a barrel from close to $120 in March following the interim U.S.-Iran peace deal.
In addition to using its Bahri tanker fleet to deliver the cargoes, the world’s top oil exporter offered the crude to its Asian customers on a spot pricing basis to attract demand as competition among suppliers heats up, said several trade sources who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Saudi Aramco, among the last of major Gulf producers to resume exports from inside the Gulf, declined to comment.
Aramco typically sells oil through long-term contracts at official selling prices (OSPs) set by the producer every month. However, its OSPs for cargoes loading in July for Asia, set in early June, are at premiums of $6 to $10 a barrel, while other Middle Eastern oil sales for July to August have fallen to discounts following progress on U.S.-Iran peace talks, with most refiners having bought enough oil up to August.
One of the sources said 6 million barrels of July-loading crude have been offered to Saudi Aramco’s usual Asian customers. Another said the pricing was “very attractive” for Chinese buyers.
Traders expect Aramco to cut its OSPs for August sharply.
VLCCS HEADING TO CHINA, JAPAN
Two of the five very large crude carriers that have left the strait are heading to Japan, while another two are making their way to China, shipping data on LSEG and Kpler showed.
Sinochem’s Quanzhou refinery will receive 2 million barrels, while another 2 million barrels is heading to Lianyungang port, where Shenghong Petrochemical is located, according to the data.
Another four VLCCs are located near the Ras Tanura port, with three of them waiting to load and one fully laden, the data showed.
Ras Tanura sits on Saudi Arabia’s eastern coast on the Gulf and is west of the Strait of Hormuz. It exported more than 5 million bpd of crude before the U.S. and Israel started the conflict by attacking Iran.
Saudi Aramco shut its largest 550,000 bpd refinery at Ras Tanura during the war as a precautionary measure.
(Reporting by Florence Tan, Chen Aizhu and Trixie Yap in Singapore, Yuka Obayashi in Tokyo; Editing by Tom Hogue)