Mideast Oil Revival Gathers Pace as Qatar Sells Crude to Asia
(Bloomberg) -- Qatar has joined Gulf nations in reviving crude sales, as regional producers crank up activity following the US-Iran interim peace deal.
A shipment of the nation’s Al-Shaheen was sold this week to Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp., which sought supplies for August to September, according to traders familiar with the matter. Some of the same grade, as well as Qatar’s Marine and Land varieties, was also sold to an Indian refiner last week, said the traders, who asked not to be named as they may not speak publicly.
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.
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 uptick in activity has seen crude exports from the United Arab Emirates rebound, as well as revivals in Iraq and Kuwait.
Qatar has been getting LNG tankers into and out of the Gulf through the strait recently. It now plans to rapidly boost production of the super-chilled fuel once the waterway fully reopens, restoring most export capacity in two months, said other people familiar with the matter.
There’s been increased tanker activity near Qatar’s Ras Laffan facility. The Kiku, a Greek-owned supertanker, is currently loading from the Al-Shaheen floating storage and offloading terminal to receive 2 million barrels of Qatari crude, ship-tracking data show.
Kiku appeared in the Gulf early June 19, after last broadcasting from the Gulf of Oman on June 13, making the very large crude carrier one of the first mainstream tankers to enter the gulf since the US-Iran deal.
Separately, state-owned QatarEnergy had also offered a cargo of gasoline for export next month, from its Mesaieed refinery in the Gulf, in a sign that wider processing operations were ramping up.
QatarEnergy — which is responsible for the country’s energy supply, including oil, products and LNG — didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In addition, Apex Shipping & Energy Ltd. in Greece, listed as manager of Kiku on the Equasis database, didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
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