China’s Unipec accelerates U.S. crude purchases after Saudi oil attacks

China’s Unipec, the trading arm of Asia’s top oil refiner Sinopec, chartered at least four crude tankers this week from the United States, ramping up shipments after attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities and as trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies cool, sources said.

Three Aframax vessels that can carry about 750,000 barrels, and one supertanker that can hold about 2 million barrels of crude, have been chartered by Unipec tentatively, according to a shipping source and Refinitiv Eikon data.

The attack on Saudi oil facilities on Saturday knocked out half of Saudi Arabia’s oil production, or 5% of global output, sending prices soaring and setting off a flurry of inquiries for export cargoes out of the U.S. Gulf Coast in anticipation of a prolonged outage.

A top Saudi official said Tuesday that output might return fully within a few weeks, faster than anticipated. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, is a heavy supplier to China, averaging more than 1 million barrels per day (bpd) in shipments. China imports more crude oil than any other nation.

Imports of U.S. oil into China soared in August, ending the month at 505,000 bpd as Chinese purchasers likely rushed to import U.S. oil ahead of a 5% tariff that came into effect this month, analysts at Kpler said on Monday.

Through the first 10 days of September, Chinese imports of U.S. crude were just 53,000 bpd, they said. That may increase now as the two nations have restarted talks aimed at resolving a bitter trade war that has hampered global growth.

China’s vice finance minister will lead a delegation to visit the United States on Wednesday for negotiations, China’s commerce ministry said this week, as a prelude to additional higher-level discussions in October in Washington.

Unipec chartered Aframaxes FSL Piraeus, Philotimos and Searanger along with the Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) New Solution, according to the source and Refinitiv Eikon data.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Devika Krishna Kumar in New York Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Marguerita Choy)