Oil Shipment News

The U.S. on Friday divulged it disrupted in April a multimillion-dollar shipment of crude oil by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, seizing more than 980,000 barrels of contraband crude oil that violated U.S. sanctions.In April, Reuters reported that the U.S. confiscated cargo onboard tanker Suez Rajan, which was carrying Iranian oil at sea. The U.S. statement on Friday confirmed and fleshed out details of the story which cited sources.The "illicit sale and transport of Iranian oil" violated sanctions targeting Iran, the U.S.

As Iran's oil exports rise despite U.S. sanctions over its nuclear program, senators from both parties urged President Joe Biden to enable a federal government agency to seize Iranian oil and gas shipments.Senators Joni Ernst, a Republican, and Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said in a letter to Biden that the Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office has not been able to seize an Iranian oil shipment for more than a year.HSI's enforcement has been curtailed by policy limitations within the Department of Treasury's Executive Office for Asset Forfeiture…

Albania has seized an oil tanker carrying 22,500 tonnes of oil suspected of coming from Russia and arrested the crew for breaching a Western embargo, Albanian police said on Monday. The Liberian-registered oil and chemical tanker was seized in the coastal town of Durres. "From the first steps of investigation it is suspected that this oil shipment is coming from countries under an oil embargo, especially from Russia," police said in the statement. "The tanker departed from Azerbaijan and was allegedly loaded with oil at Greece's Kalamata port…

An Iranian-flagged tanker on Friday delivered an oil shipment to Syria, which the United States had previously confiscated around Greece, ending months of uncertainty about the cargo, a ship tracker said.The seizure from the Lana, formerly the Pegas, prompted Iranian forces in May to seize two Greek tankers in the Middle East Gulf which were released on Nov. 16. Satellite tracking data showed the Lana had discharged the cargo of around 700,000 barrels in the Syrian port of Banias, said Claire Jungman, chief of staff with U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which monitors Iran-related tanker traffic through ship and…

A tanker of U.S. sour crude was delivered at Germany's port of Rostock last week for the first time ever, according to sources, analysts and vessel tracking data, as local refiners test alternatives to Russian oil.The European Union plans an almost-complete embargo of Russian barrels by year-end, and is trying to wean itself off Russian crude imports, which have fed inland refineries in Germany, Poland and other central European nations via pipeline.Refiners plan to replace Russian oil with seaborne Norwegian, Saudi Arabian, British and U.S. crude grades. Russia has already shown through its natural gas exports that it is willing to cut off European destinations in a tit-for-tat over the EU's financial sanctions that followed Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in February.

Iran expects an oil cargo confiscated by the United States off the coast of Greece to be returned in full, Tehran's ambassador to Athens said on Thursday, following a Greek court ruling quashing the original decision to confiscate it.The case arose when Greece in April impounded the Iranian-flagged Lana, formerly Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members on board, near the island of Evia due to European Union sanctions.The ship was released due to complications over its ownership. The United States in May confiscated part of the Iranian oil cargo onboard…

TankerTrackers.com has visual confirmation that an Iranian tanker is discharging gasoil in Syria's Baniyas port which is destined for neighboring Lebanon, the online oil shipment tracking service said on Tuesday."Unable to deliver directly by sea to Lebanon due to sanctions, the vessel went instead to Baniyas, Syria, for land transfer," the firm said on Twitter, referring to U.S. economic sanctions on the government in Tehran. Syria is also under U.S. sanctions, so has nothing to lose from receiving the oil.It will require 1,310 trucks to transport the cargo to Lebanon, it added, estimating the cargo at 33,000 metric tons of gasoil.Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah…

Venezuela's main oil export port of Jose and the country's four crude upgraders have been unable to resume operations following a massive power blackout on Monday, according to industry workers and a union leader close to the facilities.The most recent oil shipment for export, on the carrier Dragon chartered by Russia's Rosneft, left Jose, which is owned by state-run PDVSA, on March 24, according to Refinitiv Eikon vessel-tracking data and PDVSA's trade documents."There is no electricity, everything is paralyzed," oil workers' union leader Jose Bodas told Reuters on Tuesday.The blackout, Venezuela's second major power outage in a month…

An oil tanker and a Norwegian navy frigate collided off Norway's west coast on Thursday, injuring eight people and triggering the temporary shutdown of a North Sea crude export terminal, Norway's top gas processing plant and several offshore fields.The frigate, which recently took part in a major NATO military exercise, was aground and tilting on one side, live television pictures showed. The Norwegian military was attempting to save the ship."We are working on stabilizing the vessel…

Navig8 VL8 pool is to take delivery of two VLCCs from Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation (CSET). The VL8 pool is one of the largest VLCC tanker pools in the world managed by Navig8.The 322,860dwt Xin Lian Yang (built 2014) will deliver to the pool later this month, with a second modern unit to be delivered during November."We are extremely excited to have received CSET's commitment and welcome CSET as a partner," said Jason Klopfer, Navig8 managing director.This increases the number of committed vessels to 24 in the VL8 Pool.Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation is engaged in the shipment of oil and cargoes along the coast of the People’s Republic of China and internationally.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia said on Saturday it has resumed all oil shipments through the strategic Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb.Saudi Arabia halted temporarily oil shipments through the lane on July 25 after attacks on two oil tankers by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement.A statement by the Energy Ministry said shipments had resumed on Saturday."The decision to resume oil shipment through the strait of Bab al-Mandeb was made after the leadership of the coalition has taken necessary measures to protect the coalition states' ships…

An Aframax tanker is scheduled to deliver the largest shipment of crude oil from Vancouver to China since January 2015 later this month, Thomson Reuters trade flow data show.For years, Canadian officials have pushed for an escalation in crude exports to rapidly growing Asian markets, but companies in the oil-rich Alberta have limited capacity to move crude to the nation's western coastline.That makes Canadian crude exports from Vancouver to Asia rare, but shipments have picked up in recent months, with oil tankers to China, Thailand and South Korea departing in April and July. Most of the crude shipped from Vancouver - which has limited export capacity - is carried to the U.S.

Brazil on Wednesday pushed back its forecast for a first oil shipment from its promising offshore Libra prospect to the first quarter of next year, months after its previously projected October 2017 estimate made in May.   Hercules Tadeu F. da Silva, contract management director at Brazil's state-run Pre-Sal Petroleo SA, a company created to help guide development of Libra, declined to explain the cause of the delay. (Reporting by Simon Webb)

Mexican national oil company Pemex said on Tuesday that Hurricane Harvey forced the cancellation of several crude oil export shipments. Due to the damage inflicted by Harvey on the U.S. Gulf coast refining center, Pemex arranged for alternative gasoline and diesel cargos from suppliers elsewhere, the company said in a statement. The company also moved up maintenance plans for its Ku-Maloob-Zaap field, its biggest producer, located in shallow waters of the Bay of Campeche. The maintenance will be conducted from this week through Sept. 11, which will cause production to temporarily dip by some 330,000 barrels per day (bpd). But Pemex said the maintenance plans are not expected to impact the company's production forecast for this year.

Cosco Shipping Energy Transportation (CSET) has announced that the board has approved it subsidiary, Shenzhen Cosco LPG Shipping, to join the bidding for a second hand LPG vessel.   Shenzhen Cosco LPG  is the energy shipping unit of Chinese shipping conglomerate China Cosco Shipping. The price quoted for the LPG tanker would be $ 5.21mln.   The LPG carrier is the China-flagged, 2011-built Hua Nan 3 of 3,218-dwt in capacity and classed by China Classification Society (CCS). It is owned by Shenzhen Southern China LPG.   CSET operates through Oil Shipment and Dry Bulk Shipment segments.  As of June 30, 2016, it operated a fleet of 99 vessels with approximately 14.06 million deadweight tons.

Emco Wheaton has played a pivotal role in the transfer of the first shipment of U.S. crude oil for export in 40 years, after the Theo T tanker set sail from the Port of Corpus Christi bound for Europe. The Greek oil tanker was loaded on New Year’s Eve by NuStar Energy LP at its North Beach Terminal at Port Corpus Christi in Texas using three Emco Wheaton Marine Loading Arms. To cost effectively and safely supply crude oil to the global market, Nustar Energy LP made significant investments in its Corpus Christi terminal operations in 2014 with the purchase of new equipment.

Hong Kong unit of China Shipping Development, the oil and dry bulk shipping arm of state conglomerate China Shipping Group, has booked four very large crude carriers (VLCCs) at a compatriot yard. The worth a total of $375.92m was placed with Dalian Shipbuilding Industry Co (DSIC). The four new 308,000 dwt oil tankers, each costing around $94m, are scheduled to be delivered between May 2017 to September 2018. The construction of the VLCCs will be funded by bank funding and internal financial resources. The delivery of the new vessels will enable the company to optimize its overall route arrangements and improve its operating efficiency and profitability, said the company.

Iran is sidestepping Western sanctions and managing to sell hundreds of thousands of tonnes of fuel oil every month through companies based in the U.S.-allied United Arab Emirates, trading sources told Reuters. The U.S. and EU sanctions that came into force in 2012 prohibit the import, purchase and transport of Iranian petroleum products to pressure Tehran to halt its disputed nuclear programme. Washington has also pressed its allies around the world to clamp down on the shipping of Iranian oil products. But Tehran has been using innovative methods to circumvent the restrictions, several Middle East-based trading sources said. They include tankers switching off their tracking systems…

The Iraqi oil ministry said on Thursday it would challenge a U.S. court decision that stopped U.S. Marshals from seizing some one million barrels of disputed Kurdish oil docked near Texas. On Monday, a U.S. district court ruled in favour of a request by Iraq's Kurdish region that a demand by the Iraqi government for U.S. authorities to seize the Kurdish oil shipment be scrapped. However, the court gave Baghdad 10 days to resubmit its case. "The ministry of oil is emphasising that it is preparing the amended request and will forward it in the required period," the oil ministry said in a statement. "The decision of the court is only to lift the seizure of the shipment while at sea. Therefore they referred to American maritime law.

Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak will intervene with Gazprom to raise reduced gas shipments to Slovakia to contracted levels, Slovakia's economy ministry said on Wednesday after bilateral talks in Moscow. Slovakia says natural gas flows to its national importer SPP have been reduced by up to 50 percent versus requested amounts since September 5, with Gazprom explaining the reduction by the need to fill up its storage. "Russia's energy minister made a public promise to (Slovak) Economy Minister Pavol Pavlis that he will personally intervene with the highest leadership of Gazprom to return supplies of gas for Slovakia to contracted levels because contract conditions need to be fulfilled," the ministry said in a statement.

Gazprom says it has started producing oil from the Prirazlomnoye field, which is the first Russian project for developing the Arctic shelf and the commencement, they say, of their large-scale activities aimed at creating a large hydrocarbon production center in the region. The Prirazlomnoye oil field [scene of an earlier Greenpeace protest] is located in the Pechora Sea, 60 kilometers off the shore. The recoverable oil reserves amount to 71.96 million tons, projected oil production comes up to some 6 million tons a year (to be reached after 2020).