Saudi Aramco has resumed crude loadings from its Juaymah and Ras Tanura terminals on Saudi Arabia’s Gulf coast, with three VLCCs owned by South Korea’s Sinokor taking about 2m barrels each between 12 and 16 August after a three-week gap, according to Reuters.
Malaysia Prosperity, Algeria Prosperity and Singapore Prosperity loaded a combined 6m barrels. The crude grades carried by the vessels were not immediately clear, and Aramco has not commented on the loadings.
Six more VLCCs could load Saudi crude from terminals inside the Strait of Hormuz later in August. Seven VLCCs owned by Saudi shipping company Bahri were positioned off the United Arab Emirates and Oman on Tuesday, while another two were heading towards Fujairah.
Aramco has also offered Asian refiners Arab Medium and Arab Heavy crude for loading through ship-to-ship transfers off Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. Saudi export flows remain constrained on the Red Sea route, with Sidi Kerir in Egypt being used as an alternative loading point. About 670,000 barrels per day of Middle Eastern crude are expected to load there for Asian buyers in August, compared with zero in the previous three months and about 4m bpd previously exported from Yanbu.
The latest shipments follow an earlier restart at Ras Tanura on 26 June after a halt of nearly four months. By 2 July, at least five VLCCs carrying a combined 10m barrels of Saudi crude had departed through the Strait of Hormuz, with cargoes heading to buyers including China and Japan.
Saudi Arabian Oil Co, known as Aramco, is Saudi Arabia’s state energy company with integrated energy and chemicals operations and a network of affiliates, subsidiaries and joint ventures in more than 50 countries.