Qatar is tendering crude for loading outside the Strait of Hormuz in July and August, in what is likely the first Qatari crude offering to buyers since the Iran war began on February 28, trade sources told Reuters on Friday.
Qatar’s state firm QatarEnergy has issued a tender, which closes on June 29, offering buyers to load or lift Marine Qatar, Marine Land, and al-Shaheen crude grades via ship-to-ship (STS) transfers between the offshore waters of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates and Sohar in Oman, per a tender document Reuters has seen.
The Fujairah-Sohar area is outside the actual Strait of Hormuz, which suggests that Qatar is relatively optimistic it can have its cargoes clear the Strait outbound in the coming weeks.
Earlier this week, Qatar signed a deal with a Taiwanese refiner for the sale of a cargo of Al-Shaheen crude.
The Qatari offerings add to rising supply from the Middle East that is making it through the Strait of Hormuz and en route to buyers.
The increased traffic through the chokepoint has depressed oil prices over the past week. Oil is now back to roughly the levels from before the war.
Qatar is the latest Gulf producer to re-launch tenders for crude loadings of cargoes that are expected to leave the Persian Gulf within weeks.
Abu Dhabi’s national oil company ADNOC has reportedly sold more than 60 million barrels of crude oil in three tenders. ADNOC has offered buyers to lift these volumes in June, July, and August via STS transfers east of the Strait of Hormuz, market sources told Energy Intelligence this week.
Kuwait is reportedly offering naphtha for loading at its ports deep into the Persian Gulf in the first such tender in months, as Middle Eastern oil producers seek to raise shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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