Saudi Arabia News

Hamburg Port Defends Service Losses

Germany's largest port, the Port of Hamburg not expecting reduction in container throughput caused by liner service changes announced by Ocean Alliance and Maersk.From April, the Ocean Alliance NEU 5 service handled by EUROGATE Container Terminal Hamburg – CTH is being transferred to Antwerp, said a press release from the a sea port on the river Elbe in Hamburg, Germany, 110 kilometres from its mouth on the North Sea."This service will be run by the Ocean Alliance Partner, CMA CGM as FAL 3 with an approximate annual volume of 150…

Mideast Tensions Create Insurance Headache for Tanker Owners

Even as the United States and Iran appear to signal a keenness to avoid further conflict, oil and gas shipowners are bracing to pay a price for the war of words that culminated in rocket strikes in Iraq over the last week - higher insurance bills.According to industry sources, payments known as war risk premiums for tankers shuttling through the Strait of Hormuz could rise significantly, adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to shipping costs in some cases that will ultimately…

DP World to Invest $500 in Jeddah Port Upgrade

The global port operator DP World has been awarded a 30-year Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) concession by the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani), for the management and development of the Jeddah South Container Terminal at the multi-purpose Jeddah Islamic Port.According to a press release from the UAE-based world leader in global supply chain solutions, under the agreement, DP World will invest up to $500 million to improve and modernize the Jeddah Islamic Port, including major infrastructure development to enable the Port to serve the ultra-large container carriers (ULCC’s)…

Saudi Aramco, Korea Shipbuilding Roll-out New JV

Korea Shipbuilding & Offshore Engineering (KOSE), a manufacturer of oil tankers, cargo and passenger vessels, and warships, and Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) plans to set up a joint venture to build engines.According to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency the JV will break ground for the plant in the King Salman International Complex for Maritime Industries and Services in the kingdom’s eastern coast in September 2020, and the project is set to be completed in May 2022.The Korean company is working to build a shipyard at the complex through a separate JV with Saudi Aramco…

Bahri Looks to Make LNG Foray

Saudi Aramco's shipping arm Bahri has issued an expression of interest (EOI) to charter up to 12 liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers from 2025, its first foray into the superchilled fuel, industry sources said on Monday.No further details were immediately available and Saudi Aramco declined to comment. EOIs are preliminary enquiries that may or may not turn into full-fledged orders.According to Bahri's website, the national shipping carrier of Saudi Arabia has six business units dealing in oil…

Romania Tries to Free Trapped Sheep on Capsized Ship

Port authorities tried to right a capsized ship on Monday to rescue thousands of sheep trapped below deck in the Black Sea off Romania.The Palau-registered Queen Hind flipped onto its side shortly after leaving Romania's Midia port en route to Saudi Arabia on Sunday. Its crew, most of them Syrians, were rescued."There are hopes to rescue many sheep, as they are trapped under the deck in air pockets," an officer from Romania's naval authority said, speaking on condition of anonymity."But operations to lighten the ship and refloat it are very difficult and may last several days…

Houthis Release South Korean, Saudi vessels

Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement released three vessels and 16 people it had seized, South Korea's Foreign Ministry and a Houthi military source in Yemen said on Wednesday.The seizure on Sunday was the latest incident at sea around Yemen, where Saudi Arabia is leading a Western-backed coalition of Arab states against the Houthis, who control the capital and most population centres and have been accused of attacking shipping.Of the vessels freed on Tuesday, two were South Korean and one was Saudi Arabia-flagged…

Product Tanker Freight Rates Rebounds

Product tanker freight rates softened in the third quarter of 2019 but rebounded strongly at the start of the fourth quarter following an increase in crude tanker rates that began after the attacks on Saudi Arabian oil facilities and accelerated dramatically to multi-year high levels at the end of September when the US imposed sanctions on two subsidiaries of China's COSCO Shipping.Denmark-based TORM said that growth in global demand for oil products generally remained subdued…

IMO2020: Market Uncertainty Brings More Fuel Oil Price Volatility

The oil market has recently been shaken up by geopolitical events, but volatility in the price difference between low and high sulphur fuel cannot be explained by that alone – the uncertainty is the chaos factor.The uncertainty of the upcoming IMO 2020 Sulphur cap regulation (IMO2020) is having a big impact on the bunker market. Whereas, the price for Marine Gas Oil Low Sulphur (MGO LS) has largely remained stable, the price for High Sulphur Fuel oil (HSFO) has been become increasingly more volatile in recent months.

Aramco Signs 34 EPC Contracts Worth $18bn

Saudi Aramco has signed 34 engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) related contracts (worth over US$18bn) for projects such as the Marjan and Berri field incremental development program in Saudi Arabia, during Q3 2019, according to GlobalData.The most important is ADNOC’s US$3.6bn contract for the supply of one million metric tons of casing and tubing to support exploration and production activity in United Arab Emirates (UAE).The global oil and gas industry has witnessed a substantial boost from those contracts activity in the Middle East…

India, S. Arabia in New Petro Relationship

India and Saudi Arabia have decided to expand its ‘energy relationship’ into next phase to include Saudi partnership in building additional crude oil storage reserves in India, a new refinery on the west coast of India and investment in retail sector in petroleum.Saudi Arabia is its second-biggest supplier of crude oil after Iraq. It sold 40.33 million tonnes of crude oil to India in 2018-19 fiscal, when the country had imported 207.3 million tonnes of oil.India imports around 18 per cent of its crude oil from the Kingdom…

Virgin Hyperloop to Add $4Bln to S. Arabia

Virgin Hyperloop One (VHO) is anticipated to pile in a potential US$4 billion into Saudi Arabia as it strives to make hyperloop transportation a reality.A 35-kilometer test and certification track will be built 100 kilometers north of the Red Sea port of Jeddah, in King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) by US tech transport company VHO, which commissioned the study.The study said that a Center of Excellence, if approved, would drive domestic growth by adding to the creation of more than 124…

Oil Stockpiling Builds Ahead of IMO 2020 Rules

S-Oil, South Korea's third-largest refiner, said on Wednesday that regional refining margins are expected to improve in the fourth quarter on the back of inventory build-up ahead of implementation of stricter rules on marine fuels in 2020.The refiner, whose top shareholder is Saudi Aramco, said in an earnings statement, strong demand for heating oil was also expected to support refining margins, along with the International Maritime Organization (IMO)'s stricter shipping fuel…

Bahri Profits Up in Q3

The owner and operator of very large crude carriers Bahri announced strong financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2019, on the back of solid growth in the logistics services sector.The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia said that its net profits soared 80.52 percent to SAR 146.73 million (USD 39.12 million), from SAR 81.28 million in the corresponding quarter in 2018, primarily due to an increase in returns of several operating segments.Bahri’s revenues during the three-month period between July and September jumped 6.28 percent to SAR 1.48 billion…

Iranian Tanker Hit by Missiles, Oil Rises

Oil prices jumped more than 2% on Friday, October 11, 2019, after Iranian media said a state-owned oil tanker had been struck by missiles in the Red Sea near Saudi Arabia, raising the prospect of supply disruptions weeks after attacks on Saudi oil plants.The Suezmax crude tanker Sabiti was ablaze and suffered heavy damage after being hit by two missiles, Iranian media reported.Both oil benchmarks recorded their biggest daily rise since Sept. 16, the first trading day after the…

VLCC Rates Surge as U.S. Sanctions COSCO

Freight rates to ship U.S. crude to Asia continued to surge, with costs to charter a supertanker rising to a record $12 million on Thursday, shipping sources familiar with the matter said.South Korea's top refiner, SK Energy, tentatively chartered the supertanker Maxim to ship U.S. crude to South Korea in November for a record $10 million earlier in the week but that fixture has since failed, the sources said.The company now has conditionally booked the Pacific M at a new record of $12.35 million…

India's Containerized Trade Growth Slows

India's container trade growth slowed to 1 percent (9% in the same period last year) in Q2 2019 on account of various factors like growing trade tensions and slump in manufacturing sector, Maersk said."The slow down is due to a cocktail of international factors such as slowing trade growth, and growing trade tensions – coupled with domestic factors like rural consumer distress, tightening liquidity and a slow-down in key manufacturing sectors. Combined, these triggers impacted the country’s economic activity…

Maersk India Trade Report Q2 2019

India’s containerized trade growth slowed to 1% (9% in the same period last year) in Q2 2019, due to a cocktail of international factors such as slowing trade growth, and growing trade tensions – coupled with domestic factors like rural consumer distress, tightening liquidity and a slow-down in key manufacturing sectors. Combined, these triggers impacted the country’s economic activity, slowing overall import-export growth.West India delivered the highest growth with imports growing at 4% and exports at 11%.

US to Drive New-Build Gas Capacity

The US is expected to drive new-build gas processing capacity growth in the global gas processing industry from planned and announced (new-build) projects between 2019 and 2023, contributing around 24% of global gas processing capacity growth by 2023, according to GlobalData. The US is expected to have a new-build gas processing capacity of 16.9 billion cubic feet per day (bcfd) by 2023, a report titles ‘Global Capacity and Capital Expenditure Outlook for Gas Processing Plants'…

Saudi Arabia Boosts MIS Center

The new, state-of-the-art Jeddah Maritime Information Sharing Center is set to boost information sharing and support maritime security in the region.The first 15 national operators to work in the center have completed a three-week training in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (25 August – 12 Sep 2019) with the support of International Maritime Organization (IMO) .It is envisaged that the center will become fully operational by the end of the year. It will serve both as a regional center to share information through the Djibouti Code of Conduct focal points…

Aramco Rapidly Restores Production Capacity

Saudi Arabia's oil and gas giant Saudi Aramco announced that it will fully restore its production capacity by the end of September, in light of the Saturday's drone attacks that caused disruptions on around half of the country's oil capacity.Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman, Minister of Energy, and HE Yasir Rumayyan, Chairman of Saudi Aramco, Mr. Nasser said: “The terror attacks on our plants at Abqaiq and Khurais were timed to create maximum damage to our facilities and operations.

Aramco Suspends 50% of Production

Saudi Arabia has temporarily halted production at two Aramco oil facilities that were attacked by Yemeni rebels, interrupting about half of the company’s total output.Saudi Aramco said the production of 5.7 million barrels of crude a day had been suspended after drone attacks on the world’s largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq – near Dammam in the Eastern Province – and the country’s second-largest oilfield at Khurais, about 200 kilometers away.Earlier, the oil giant said that emergency crews contained fires at its plants.After visiting the incident locations, Amin H.

McQuilling Mid-Year Tanker Market Outlook

McQuilling Services Announces the Release of the 2019 Mid-Year Tanker Market Outlook Update.The Mid-Year Tanker Market Outlook Update provides an outlook on the global tanker market in the context of global economic growth and oil fundamentals influencing tanker demand and vessel supply. The outlook includes a view on future asset values, time charter rates, market freight rates and TCE revenues for 24 major tanker trades and four triangulated routes across eight vessel segments for the second half of 2019 through the remaining four years of the forecast period 2019-2023.

Saudi Aramco, World’s Most Profitable Co, Again

Saudi Aramco announced that its net income was $46.9 billion for the first half 2019, compared to $53.0 billion for the same period last year. That easily outstripped corporate titans such as Apple Inc, Amazon.com Inc and other big oil producers, many of which suffered larger declines in profit as output and crude prices fell. Saudi Aramco President & CEO Amin H. Nasser, said: “Despite lower oil prices during the first half of 2019, we continued to deliver solid earnings and strong free cash flow underpinned by our consistent operational performance…

ICE, Magellan to Offer Dock Capacity to Houston Oil Futures Customers

Intercontinental Exchange Inc and Magellan Midstream Partners LP said on Wednesday they would auction dock capacity at Magellan's terminals in Galena Park and Seabrook, Texas, for holders of ICE's Permian West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures contracts.The monthly auction process will allow customers who purchase an ICE Permian WTI crude futures contract, deliverable at Magellan's East Houston terminal (MEH), the option to load crude directly onto a vessel at Galena Park and Seabrook dock facilities for export…

New Heavy Weight Record for Jumbo

Jumbo Kinetic recently lifted a giant 1,929 tonne Wash Tower, the heaviest cargo ever lifted by Jumbo.Samsung Engineering booked Jumbo to transport an ultra-heavy Wash Tower and 4 columns, including transport saddles, for the JUPC project in Saudi Arabia. The specialized Jumbo team handled the safe loading, sea fastening, and transportation of the 4 columns from Zhangjiagang, China and the Wash tower from Pyeongtaek, Korea to Jubail in Saudi Arabia.The Wash Tower weighs 1,929…