Uche Cecil Izuora
Top Gulf states oil producers including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar have continued loading oil and LNG onto vessels at their Persian Gulf ports despite the attacks on two commercial vessels near the Strait of Hormuz and the weekend tensions between the U.S. and Iran.
The Middle Eastern producers are rushing to load oil and LNG while the Strait of Hormuz is formally open, even if traffic has slowed since Friday, due to the attack on a fully-laden oil supertanker in the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported on Monday, quoting ship-tracking data.
Iran is also observed to have renewed loadings from Kharg Island, its key oil export port in the Gulf, after the U.S. waived the sanctions on Iranian oil sales, including in U.S. dollars, until August 21.
At the Saudi port of Ras Tanura, a fourth supertanker was loading crude on Monday, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. The loading continued even after a helicopter crash of still unknown cause killed 14 people near the port in an accident on Sunday morning local time.
One of the four very large crude carriers (VLCCs) that have loaded at Ras Tanura since the U.S. and Iran signed the memorandum to work on a deal has already exited the Strait of Hormuz and is en route to Japan, per the LSEG data cited by Reuters.
Two other supertankers are waiting to load crude at UAE ports, while the Emirates and Qatar continue to send LNG carriers through Hormuz, in a dark mode. Some of these have already cleared the Strait, according to the data.
Iran is also boosting its oil loadings at Kharg Island, racing to take advantage of the 60-day window of waived U.S. sanctions until negotiations on a peace deal are expected to continue.
The fragile ceasefire and the talks were thrown in jeopardy again this weekend, after the U.S. carried out strikes on targets in Iran in response to attacks on two ships, a container vessel in the Gulf of Oman, and a crude tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.
Late on Sunday, a U.S. official said the parties had agreed to halt hostilities ahead of a new round of talks tentatively planned for this week