No Market: Iran Floats Surplus Oil As Demand Falls Ahead Of U.S. sanctions

[ThunderBlade + 231]

Two tankers carrying Iranian condensate, a type of ultra-light oil, have been floating off the United Arab Emirates for about a month as demand for the oil fell ahead of U.S. sanctions. The tankers, carrying about 2.4 million barrels of South Pars condensate combined, have been floating off the UAE since August after South Korea halted imports from Iran while China’s demand dropped during summer, according to several industry sources and shipping data. The build-up in Iranian oil supplies underscores the pressure that Iran is facing as Washington aims to bring Iranian oil exports down to zero to force Tehran to re-negotiate a nuclear deal. The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Felicity loaded condensate at Iran’s Assaluyeh port in early August and then set sail for Jebel Ali in the UAE, shipping and trade flows data on Thomson Reuters Eikon showed. It arrived at the ship-to-ship transfer area off Dubai on Aug. 7 and has been anchored there since.

[Pavel + 384]

Give to charity....

[Petar + 76]

Buyers already skipping the Iran oil purchases, U.S. sanctions have a effect....

[damirUSBiH + 327]

With the Iran's oil exports hovering at around 2 million barrels per day, the question is why are over 80% (min.) of the population living in poverty? Mullahs steal money from his people...

 

[franco + 96]

The latest official figures show that Iran’s oil revenues over a period of four months starting March 21, 2018 saw a whopping rise compared to the same period last year. Figures released by the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) showed that Iran’s oil revenues stood at above Rials 419 trillion ($9.9 billion with each Dollar at the official rate of Rials 42,000) – around 60 percent higher year-on-year. The revenues belonged to exports of crude oil and oil products, the CBI added in its statement. Oil sales, the CBI added in a statement, set a record of Rials 348.9 trillion ($8.3 billion). The figure was higher than sales over the same period last year by 84.2 percent. Where is this money going: Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Lebanon, ballistic missiles, nuclear weapons program, support of terrorism...

[Jan van Eck + 7,558]

Here is your Tanker  (old photo, apparently from 2006, when the Panamanian-flagged tanker was named the URAL, you can see that painted on the bow):

And yup, she is a big one, 330 meters long.  that is seriously big:

STATS:

At 18 years, and with the new low-sulfur fuel requirements coming in a year, I anticipate this tanker will be scrapped soon.  Meanwhile, it is engaged in the relatively modest workload of hauling oil from Iran across the Gulf to the UAE for trans-ship loading into some other boat.

As a Panamanian-flagged ship, it is not clear if it is owned by the Iranians.  Probably not.  In which case, don't be surprised when this condensate "disappears" to some country hungry for oil, such as perhaps South Africa.   

[ceo_energemsier + 1,818]

4 hours ago, ThunderBlade said:

Two tankers carrying Iranian condensate, a type of ultra-light oil, have been floating off the United Arab Emirates for about a month as demand for the oil fell ahead of U.S. sanctions. The tankers, carrying about 2.4 million barrels of South Pars condensate combined, have been floating off the UAE since August after South Korea halted imports from Iran while China’s demand dropped during summer, according to several industry sources and shipping data. The build-up in Iranian oil supplies underscores the pressure that Iran is facing as Washington aims to bring Iranian oil exports down to zero to force Tehran to re-negotiate a nuclear deal. The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) Felicity loaded condensate at Iran’s Assaluyeh port in early August and then set sail for Jebel Ali in the UAE, shipping and trade flows data on Thomson Reuters Eikon showed. It arrived at the ship-to-ship transfer area off Dubai on Aug. 7 and has been anchored there since.

Iran Resorts to Storing Oil in Fleet of Supertankers. Again

i

Iran is starting to store oil on its fleet of supertankers again as impending U.S. sanctions force the Persian Gulf country to revive a strategy it deployed under previous curbs.

The build-up of crude in floating storage offshore Iran signals the effectiveness of the new sanctions imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on the Persian Gulf country’s oil. The measures are due to start in early November, but buyers including France, South Korea and others have already started to cut back sharply.

“We can expect floating storage to increase under the growing impact of U.S. sanctions in the coming months,” Harry Tchilinguirian, head of commodity-markets strategy at BNP Paribas SA, said from London.

Iran Resorts to Storing Oil in Fleet of Supertankers. Again
So far, most of the ships in question — all of which are Iranian owned — have only been holding crude at sea for a few weeks, rather than for months at a time as they did during 2012-2016 sanctions, tanker tracking compiled by Bloomberg show. Almost all Iran’s main customers purchased fewer Iranian barrels in August than they did in April, the month before Trump said sanctions were being reimposed.

At least five full crude tankers have anchored off the Iranian coast over the past two-and-a-half weeks. Two holding condensate, a light oil produced at Iran’s natural gas fields, have been idling for weeks off Dubai.

Trump is trying to cut off Iran’s oil exports to deprive the third-biggest member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries of income. In May, he pulled out of a 2015 pact that eased sanctions in return for Iran slowing its nuclear program, describing the deal as “rotten to its core” and failing to address the country’s ballistic missile testing or funding of terror groups. Buyers who defy the U.S. sanctions risk having their banks frozen out of the American financial system.

Vessel Class Date loaded Cargo Volume (barrels) Location
Felicity VLCC 06-Aug Condensate 2,000,000 Jebel Ali
Salina Suez 16-Aug Condensate 1,000,000 Jebel Ali
Navarz VLCC 24-Aug Crude 2,000,000 Kharg
Happiness I VLCC 01-Sep Crude 2,000,000 Kharg
Humanity VLCC 03-Sep Crude 1,000,000 Soroosh
Hedy VLCC 03-Sep Crude 2,000,000 Kharg
Halti VLCC 06-Sep Crude 2,000,000 Kharg

The Middle East country is not storing as much crude at sea as it did during previous sanctions, when tens of millions of barrels were held for months at a time. Nor have exports yet fallen by as much. Still, the buildup of floating storage underscores the challenges the country is facing to find buyers: customers like South Korea have completely halted imports from the country, while Europe’s refiners are scaling back.

Iran’s pumped about 3.7 million barrels a day on average since sanctions eased at the start of 2016, more than 1 million barrels a day above what it was producing when sanctions were at their toughest.

The tankers being used to store are owned by the state-run National Iranian Tanker Co. Tying up the country’s own vessels as floating storage could crimp its ability to export, since international tanker operators have found it increasingly difficult to get insurance for shipping Iranian cargoes. That’s made Iran more dependent on its own fleet.

“Iranian exports are falling fast,” Amrita Sen, chief oil analyst at Energy Aspects Ltd., said in a note to clients. Shipments are “set to average as little as 1.5 million barrels a day in September according to the preliminary loading program, compared to around 2.8 million barrels a day of oil exports in April and May,” she said.
Source: Bloomberg

n International Shipping News 12/09/2018