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Saudi Arabia is boosting crude shipments, opening up its Persian Gulf ports that were shuttered by the Iran war while also increasing loadings at Red Sea outlets that it has used to bypass the Strait of Hormuz.
Two very large crude carriers that moored Thursday are now loading at single-point moorings that form part of the Ras Tanura port on the Persian Gulf, ship-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show. They're the first tankers to use the terminal since early March, when Riyadh was forced to divert crude to the Red Sea through a 746-mile (1,200-kilometer) pipeline across the country.
Two more VLCCs are at the Ras Tanura sea island terminal, about 20 miles south of the moorings, according to a satellite image from the European Union's Sentinel-1 orbiter captured earlier Friday. One appears to be moored, while the other is being guided onto the berth by tugs.
The arrival of the giant tankers at Ras Tanura is the first sign that the Saudi oil industry is starting to return to normal. Crude exports from the gulf have risen to at least three-quarters of their pre-war levels after the US-Iran interim peace deal, and the market is scrutinizing flows to see whether the recovery can last. Hormuz traffic has continued to flow in both directions, despite an attack Thursday on a cargo ship renewing concerns about safe passage.
At the same time, shipments are continuing apace from Yanbu on the kingdom's Red Sea coast.
Vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show all seven berths across the two Yanbu terminals that are used for loading crude were occupied on Friday morning. That's the first time they've all been seen in use simultaneously since the start of the war.
Shipments to overseas buyers from Yanbu have averaged about 4.1 million barrels a day so far in June, according to tracking data. That's up by nearly 500,000 barrels a day from May, but still well below the kingdom's pre-war crude exports of about 7 million barrels a day.
Yanbu could continue to play a significant role in Saudi oil flows, allowing shippers to avoid Hormuz, where passage still remains risky. Even in the longer term, flows from Yanbu could be much higher than before the war, with Tehran insisting that it, along with Oman, will control traffic through the waterway from the Gulf as part of any lasting peace deal with the US.
