Saudi crude floating off Egypt’s Ain Sukhna halves to 10.5mln bbls – Vortexa
There are currently 10.5 million barrels of Saudi crude in floating storage off the Egyptian Red Sea port of Ain Sukhna, half the volume that built up there in mid-June, according to data from oil analytics firm Vortexa.
On June 14, Vortexa observed 19.5 million barrels of Saudi crude on board 10 very large crude carriers (VLCCs) clustered outside Ain Sukhna, most of which had loaded in the second half of May.
This is unusual for crude exported from the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries’ (OPEC) biggest producer.
The last time Saudi crude was stored on ships in such big volumes was in the second quarter of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic drove a collapse in global oil demand, Vortexa said.
All but one of the 10 VLCCs that were observed on June 14 have since unloaded the barrels, Vortexa analyst Jay Maroo said.
Currently, five VLCCs laden with Saudi crude are in floating storage off Ain Sukhna, Maroo said.
Saudi Aramco did not respond to a request for comment.
There are two other ships carrying 4.1 million barrels of Saudi crude which are waiting off the port, but they do not technically count as floating storage yet, Maroo said.
Source: Reuters (Additional reporting by Maha el Dahan; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)