MOSCOW (MRC) -- Saudi Arabia's thirst for refined product imports has surged as it looks to meet its requirements in the wake of attacks on its key oil infrastructure, as per Spglobal.
Register Now Several trading sources said state-owned Saudi Aramco's trading arm has already bought diesel cargoes from refiners in India and the UAE. The company was also actively looking to purchase jet fuel and naphtha.
"They have already bought quite a lot from India and some cargoes from UAE," a diesel trader said. "These cargoes are mainly diesel."
An Aramco representative was unavailable for comment.
"The Saudis are trying to buy oil products discreetly, without causing distress signals," a Middle East-based trading source said. "They are starting with fuel oil, naphtha, gasoline, diesel. They have shortages across the board and are going to UAE first."
Shipping sources said that ATC had placed the tanker Lian Bai Hu on subjects to carry a 60,000 diesel cargo from Vadinar to the Persian Gulf for a lump sum of USD320,000.
Sources said a fall in domestic refining runs had caused ATC to buy spot barrels of diesel and jet fuel to satiate both its domestic demand as well as supply its international customers.
To meet its October and November crude nominations, Aramco also diverted some of the crude earmarked for its domestic refining system to export. This has resulted in refinery run reductions and caused loading delays for some of the jet fuel and gasoil export cargoes out of Saudi Arabia, sources said.
As MRC informed earlier, Saudi Aramco will bring full oil production capacity at Abqaiq by the end of September, Khalid Buraik, the company’s vice-president for southern area oil operations said.
As MRC reported before, a number of Saudi Arabia's companies, such as Tasnee, Sadara, Advanced Petrochemical and Saudi Kayan, announced a curtailment of feedstock to their petrochemical plants, including polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) facilities, by an average of 30-50% due to the attacks on key Saudi Aramco facilities on Saturday.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,255,800 tonnes in the first seven months of 2019, up by 9% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. At the same time, the estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 796,120 tonnes in January-July 2019, up by 11% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
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