By Sheela Tobben and Rachel Adams-Heard (Bloomberg) -- Rising trade tensions between China and the U.S. may soon affect global oil flows. China’s largest refiner, Sinopec, will delay making any purchases of U.S. oil for September amid concern that the Asian giant will slap tariffs on American crude, making imports more expensive, according to a person familiar with … [Read more...]
BP Offloads Oil Cargo in Shandong After Two-Month Delay at Sea
BEIJING, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Oil major BP has started discharging about 1 million barrels of Angolan crude to a Chinese independent refiner, after holding the oil on water for two months due to slowing demand from private refiners, sources said on Thursday. The Mercury Hope supertanker, chartered by BP and carrying about 2 million barrels of Angolan oil, offloaded part of the … [Read more...]
Tanker Owners are Scrapping the Most Ships in Decades
By Firat Kayakiran (Bloomberg) -- Oil tanker owners are giving up. A 19-month curtailment of OPEC cargoes, and environmental regulations that are proving uneconomical to comply with, have got owners purging the supertanker fleet at the fastest pace since the 1980s, according to Global Marketing Systems Inc., one of the world’s top buyers of obsolete ships for scrap. While … [Read more...]
Why Is Saudi Halting Oil Shipments Through the Red Sea?
By Stephen Kalin and Rania El Gamal RIYADH/DUBAI, July 30 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia announced last week it was suspending oil shipments through the Red Sea's Bab al-Mandeb strait after Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis attacked two ships in the waterway. To date, no other exporters have followed suit. A full blockage of the strategic waterway would virtually halt shipment to … [Read more...]
Risks to Middle East Oil and Gas Shipping Routes: Here’s What’s At Stake
DUBAI, July 26 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it was suspending oil shipments through the Red Sea after Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis attacked two crude tankers, underscoring risks caused by the conflict in the world's top oil exporting region. Iran, in its row with the United States over sanctions, has also threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, the other major … [Read more...]