Saudi oil producer Aramco's trading arm has begun supplying US condensate, an ultra-light crude oil, to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), four people with direct knowledge of the matter said on Monday, underlining the giant firm's global ambitions.
The sale marks Aramco Trading Company's (ATC) first US crude spot trade, the people said, with ATC tapping Aramco's Motiva Enterprises unit in the United States as a supply source for two shipments to the UAE.
Aramco sells almost all its crude under long-term contracts, but decided last year to trade in non-Saudi crude in the short-term spot market. For the UAE trades, a first shipment of 1 million barrels (bbl) of US condensate aboard the tanker 'Astra' was unloaded at Ruwais on May 12, according to the sources and shipping data on Thomson Reuters Eikon. All the sources declined to be identified because they were not authorised to speak to media.
Motiva has also chartered the tanker 'South Sea' to ship about 1 million bbl of condensate from the US Gulf to Ruwais in May for about $2 million, one US-based shipping source said. Both vessels are 'Suezmax' tankers, with capacities from 120,000-200,000 deadweight tonnes, named after the Suez Canal as they are able to transit the canal fully laden. As of May 12, the 'South Sea' was docked at Corpus Christi in Texas, shipping data on Thomson Reuters Eikon showed.
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