MOSCOW (MRC) -- Equinor offloaded a rare cargo of very low-sulfur fuel oil (VLSFO) from Norway last week at UAE’s Fujairah bunkering hub to meet expected demand from stricter ship fuel emission rules, according to trade sources and shipping data, said Hydrocarbonprocessing.
The 130,000-tonne cargo has been sold to Saudi Arabia’s Aramco Trading Corp (ATC), said five fuel oil trade sources who declined to be identified due to company policies. Equinor said it did not comment on specific cargoes. ATC did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
New rules from the International Maritime Organization (IMO) take effect from Jan. 1, capping the sulfur content of shipping fuel at 0.5% from 3.5% now, unless vessels use exhaust-cleaning scrubbers.
The rare shipment is one of the new trade flows for the residue fuel as traders stock up on VLSFO supplies at major bunkering hubs to meet an expected surge in demand next year.
"This is the first VLSFO parcel we’ve seen from Mongstad (to Fujairah)," said Ranjith Raja, head of oil research at Refinitiv for Middle East and North Africa.
Suezmax tanker Cap Diamant loaded on Oct. 10 the VLSFO cargo at Mongstad port where Equinor’s refinery is located and the ship discharged its cargo at Fujairah last week, shipping data on Refinitiv Eikon showed.
The tanker was chartered by Equinor, according to a shipping report.
The cargo consisted of VLSFO with 0.472% sulfur and the oil has a viscosity of 160-centistoke and 0.933 density, the sources said.
As MRC informed earlier, Repsol has agreed to buy Equinor's equity position in US Eagle Ford shale basin for USD325 million in a deal giving it 100% control and operatorship of the shale assets. Under the deal, Repsol said it will acquire 69,000 net acres and 34,000 b/d of oil equivalent production taking its total output at Eagle Ford to 54,000 boe/d.
We remind that Repsol will shut down its cracker in Tarragona (Spain) for maintenance in the fourth quarter of 2019. The turnaround at this steam cracker, which produces 702,000 mt/year of ethylene and 372,000 mt/year of propylene, was pushed back from Q3 2019. The exact dates of maintenance works are not disclosed.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
MRC