Oil Hub News

Ports in China's Shandong province are demanding more detailed information about oil tankers that are more than 15 years old that call at their terminals, sources with knowledge of the matter said, potentially delaying the unloading of crude shipments in the world's biggest oil importer.Last week, the maritime safety administrations at Qingdao and Rizhao, which covers the oil terminals at the port of Lanshan, notified shipping agencies to submit details on their ships' age, where a ship is flagged…

Singapore, Asia's oil hub, received a rare fuel oil cargo from Djibouti in the past week, Enterprise Singapore data showed on Thursday, likely the city-state's first ever import from the African country. About 99,678 tonnes of fuel oil that arrived in the week to May 24 came from Djibouti, the data showed. It was not immediately clear who bought or sold the cargo, or whether the cargo was produced in Africa.Ship-tracking firms Kpler, Refinitiv and Vortexa has no record of fuel oil shipped from Djibouti to Singapore. (Reuters - Reporting by Jeslyn Lerh; editing by Jason Neely)

At least four supertankers are waiting to load Murban crude off Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates a week after floods shut operations at the oil hub, according to trade sources and shipping data on Refinitiv Eikon.Last Thursday, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) said it had shut down its operations at Fujairah terminal due to "exceptional rainfall".The company had said it would divert Fujairah terminal oil lifting to the Jebel Dhanna terminal which can handle Murban shipments.However, supertankers are still waiting off Fujairah and it remains unclear when loading will resume, according to the sources and Refinitiv data.Two…

Russian fuel oil arrivals offshore Greece jumped to record levels in April, as sanctions on Moscow drive traders to find new ways to export Russian oil via ship-to-ship (STS) loadings, Refinitiv Eikon data showed and sources said.Trading Russian crude and oil products remains legal for now as the European Union is yet to fully agree on a proposed embargo, but banking and other financial sanctions on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 has made it increasingly more difficult to do so.In April…

Two tankers carrying gasoline loaded in Antwerp, Belgium, have turned back to their load-port after initially being destined for Lagos in Nigeria, Refinitiv Eikon ship tracking and sources said on Friday.The two tankers, STI Symphony and Velos Diamantis, turned back in last week. The U-turns happened after Nigeria rejected other gasoline cargoes loaded in Antwerp for containing too much methanol.Reuters was not able to immediately confirm the methanol content in these two cargoes or why they turned back.Earlier this week…

Tanker and barge shipments in and out of Europe's biggest oil hub have been delayed by up to a week as four storage companies scramble to resume operations after cyber attacks, sources familiar with the matter said.Since the end of last week, storage company Oiltanking and oil trading firm Mabanaft, both owned by Germany's Marquard & Bahls, have been hit by hackers. Belgium's SEA-TANK and Dutch fuel storage firm Evos have also been affected.The companies have had to suspend some operations, affecting oil flows in the Netherlands, Belgium and across Germany.

The Fujairah Oil Terminal is investing an estimated $45 million to upgrade the infrastructure at its storage facilities, betting on a surge in crude trading and storage demand at the United Arab Emirates oil hub, the company's chairman told Reuters.FOT's expansion, financed by a new $280 million debt facility, will connect its terminal to the Port of Fujairah's very large crude carrier (VLCC) loading facility and the Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline (ADCOP) pipeline, said Steve Bickerton…

Energy trader Gunvor Group aims to cut its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 40% in absolute terms by 2025, the company said on Tuesday, and has set up a new subsidiary to invest in non-hydrocarbon projects.The Geneva-based firm, which is among the top five global oil traders, aims to cut emissions it produces directly, and those from the electricity it uses, against its 2019 total of 1.9 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent.Its new unit will invest in biofuel, renewable power projects such as solar and biomass…

Kidnappings rose by 40% in the Gulf of Guinea in the first nine months of this year, and the region off West Africa's coast now accounts for 95% of global maritime kidnappings, the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) said on Wednesday.Eighty seafarers were taken in the Gulf of Guinea, a 2.3 million sq km (888,000 sq m) area bordering more than a dozen countries, sharply up from the same period in 2019, and the pirates are attacking further out to sea than before, the IMB said.Pirates…

A Nigerian court made the first convictions under a new anti-piracy law, giving hope to the world's shipping fleets that legal reforms will help stem rising attacks in the Gulf of Guinea.The three men fined by the court in Port Harcourt, Nigeria's oil hub, on Tuesday were among nine accused of hijacking the tanker MV Elobey VI off Equatorial Guinea in March and securing a $200,000 ransom for the crew.The merchant shipping industry has long pressed Nigeria to take action in the area…

Congestion at China's east coast oil ports that is adding to costs for shippers and importers is likely to run well into August, with crude shipments set to hit another record high this month, according to analysts and Refinitiv data.The massive inflows are straining offloading facilities, while refiners and port operators in Shandong province -- home to a quarter of China's refining capacity -- are rushing to build new storage tanks.July seaborne arrivals into the world's biggest oil importer are expected to surge to 14.4 million barrels per day…

A growing number of oil tankers across Europe have been unable to unload their cargo over the past month as refining demand crashes, turning them into de facto floating storage, according to shipping data and trading sources.European refineries have had to cut runs after measures put in place to contain the coronavirus outbreak crushed fuel demand.More than 25 tankers with roughly 18 million barrels onboard were anchored near European ports, with most them already there for over a week as of Thursday…

Oil traders are storing as much as 80 million barrels of oil on tankers at sea, with further ships being sought as land storage sites fill up fast due to a global glut of stocks, shipping industry sources say.Traders rushed for storage after global oil demand collapsed by a third due to the coronavirus outbreak, and as top producers Saudi Arabia and Russia have refused to curb output so far, creating what is believed to be the biggest oil glut in history.The last time floating storage reached similar levels was in 2009…

Shippers trying to minimise time in the Middle East after oil tanker attacks pushed up insurance costs are scaling back purchases of marine fuels from the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Fujairah oil hub, trade sources said.Instead, they are turning primarily to Singapore, the world's top refuelling hub, to buy marine fuels, also known as bunkers, with some diverting to smaller bunkering ports, including in India and Sri Lanka, the sources said.A tonne of 380-centistoke (cst) high…

U.S. oil refiner Phillips 66 is proposing a deepwater crude export terminal off the U.S. Gulf Coast, challenging at least eight other projects aiming to send U.S. shale oil to world markets, according to a memo and a source who asked not to be named.The project, called Bluewater Texas Terminal LLC, signals another major expansion of its logistics operations. The fourth largest U.S. refiner last week formed joint ventures to build pipelines linking shale fields in West Texas and North Dakota to the Cushing, Oklahoma, oil hub and the U.S.

A Swiss-operated ship has been attacked off the coast of Nigeria, Switzerland’s foreign ministry said, amid media reports that 12 crew members had been kidnapped by a  gang of pirates.The MV Glarus, merchant ship operated by Geneva-based shipping company Massoel Shipping, was transporting wheat between Lagos and the southern Niger Delta oil hub of Port Harcourt.According to reports, the incident took place at about 45 nautical miles south west of Bonny Island. The pirates held 12 among the ship's staff members as hostages.According to West African nation's maritime agency, the crew members the Swiss cargo vessel kidnapped by pirates are from the Philippines…

Sales of marine fuels in Singapore fell to a two-month low in August as fewer ships called for refueling at the world's largest bunkering hub, officialdata showed on Thursday.Marine fuel sales last month declined 9.2 percent from a year earlier and 1.8 percent from a month ago to 3.963 million metric tons, data from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) showed.The decline in marine refueling activity, also known as bunkering, was largely anticipated, four trade sources said…

Inquiries for marine fuel supplies in the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) Fujairah oil hub have spiked as shippers try to avoid loading tainted fuel oil that has clogged and damaged ship engines in Singapore recently, three trade sources said.Tainted marine fuel has been found in Singapore, the world's largest ship refuelling hub, following reports of more than 100 vessels that loaded similarly contaminated fuel in the U.S.

Royal Vopak and its joint venture partners intend to expand their independent storage terminal, Pengerang Independent Terminals Sdn Bhd (PITSB) in Pengerang, Johor in southern Malaysia. PITSB will be expanded with 430,000 cbm to a total capacity of 1.7 million cubic meters.The expansion which is subject to final formalities, is expected to be commissioned progressively from Q1 2019. PITSB provides storage, blending and distribution services for crude oil and clean petroleum products. The expansion relates to the storage of clean petroleum products. In total, 24 new tanks will be built ranging from 10.000 cbm to 25.000 cbm. In addition to the extra capacity, one extra berth will be taken into operation, bringing the total number of operating berths to six.

The population of a U.S. oil boomtown that became a symbol of the fracking revolution is dropping fast because of the collapse in crude oil prices , according to an unusual metric: the amount of sewage produced. Williston, North Dakota, has seen its population drop about 6 percent since last summer, according to wastewater data relied upon heavily by city planning officials. They turned to measuring effluent because it was a much faster and more accurate way to track population than alternatives such as construction permits, school enrollment, tax receipts or airport boardings. U.S. Census Bureau figures are usually too old as a full-fledged population count only happens once a decade, with sporadic updates in between.

Gulf of Mexico vessel builders – and their customers – adapt to a lean offshore market. After oil prices plunged in late 2014 – pressured by shale output – demand for offshore vessels in the Gulf of Mexico shrank, day rates for boats fell and non-working units were idled. This year, several GoM boat builders filed for Chapter 11, or voluntary bankruptcy, while others consolidated. The most diversified companies kept their heads above water. Today, the outlook's a bit brighter. Crude oil prices hit bottom early last year. Tidewater Inc.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas, long a niche product used by the poor to cook and the rich to barbecue, has become a rare bright spot amid a broad commodities rout, riding on the wave of strong economic growth in India and parts of Southeast Asia. LPG is best known to consumers as propane or butane used in heating appliances and vehicles. But it is also used in the petrochemicals industry and the electricity sector, acting as a replacement for diesel in generators and power stations. While tumbling prices for oil, gas, coal and industrial metals have seen energy companies and miners slash capital expenditure, investment is flowing into the LPG sector to feed burgeoning demand from the world's poorer nations.

A magnitude 4.1 quake hit near the north Oklahoma town of Medford on Friday, the second temblor in two days to hit the area where energy extraction takes place. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake, initially reported as a magnitude 4.6, struck at 4:40 p.m. at a shallow depth of 4.9 miles (8 km) with the epicenter 9 miles (15 km), north-northwest of Medford. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries. A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck northern Oklahoma early on Thursday, rattling residents out of their beds and shaking the ground across a 100-mile (160-km) radius that included the city of Tulsa and the state of Kansas.