Crude oil trade has started to see the effect of a recent ban by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on cargoes originating from Sudan, after the two countries severed ties earlier this year.
In May this year, Sudan severed ties with the UAE, having repeatedly accused it of backing the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group which took up arms against the Sudanese army in the latest conflict in Sudan that erupted in April 2023.
Sudan accused the Gulf state and key OPEC oil producer of “ongoing aggression” in the civil war in the country. The UAE has rejected the accusations.
After the diplomatic ties were cut, the UAE earlier this month imposed a maritime trade embargo on vessels coming from Sudan’s key Port Sudan on the Red Sea.
The UAE’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure earlier in August quietly issued a directive banning “maritime interactions” with Port Sudan to protect the “strategic interest of the UAE,” MEES news outlet reported last week, citing the directive it has seen. The UAE has effectively banned all its ports from exporting or importing cargo to and from Port Sudan, including oil cargoes.
As a result of the ban, oil tankers now need to change destinations.
For example, at least one vessel carrying crude oil has been unable to call at the key UAE oil port of Fujairah, after departing from Sudan, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing shipping agreements and tanker-tracking data.
The Suezmax ship, the Pola, is carrying a cargo of the Dar Blend crude of South Sudan—Sudan’s landlocked neighbor which uses a pipeline through Sudan and Port Sudan to export its oil.
The tanker, which was last anchored off Oman, about 62 miles from the UAE’s Fujairah, could now move toward the Singapore Strait and seek to offload there, traders familiar with the market told Bloomberg.
Dar Blend cargoes are being mostly shipped to Fujairah, Malaysia, and Singapore, and cutting off Fujairah would alter part of the trade flows between Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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