Suez Canal Suspends Traffic While Efforts to Dislodge Ship Continue
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March 25, 2021 Suez Canal suspends traffic while efforts to dislodge Consultancy Wood Mackenzie said the biggest impact ship continue was on container shipping, but there were also a total of The Suez Canal temporarily suspended traffic on 16 laden crude and product oil tankers due to sail through Thursday as efforts to dislodge a 400 m (430 yard) long the canal and now delayed by the incident. container vessel that has blocked the waterway continued The load of the tankers amounted to 870,000 tonnes of for a third day, with eight tugs working to straighten the crude and 670,000 tonnes of clean oil products such as ship. gasoline, naphtha and diesel, it said. The Ever Given vessel, almost as long as the Empire State Building is high, ran aground diagonally across the Global oil markets under pressure as Asia destocks, single-lane stretch of the southern canal on Tuesday China imports slowed morning after losing the ability to steer amid high winds Crude oil producers from Europe, Africa and the United and a dust storm. States faced difficulties selling to Asia, especially China, It is now blocking transit in both directions through one of as buyers took cheaper oil from storage while refinery the world's busiest shipping channels for goods, oil, grain maintenance has reduced demand, industry sources said and other products linking Asia and Europe. on Thursday. Eight tugs, the largest of them with a towing power of 160 Chinese independent refiners, which account for a fifth of tons, have been trying to push and pull the Ever Given the country's imports, have slowed imports in the second free of the canal's banks, the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) quarter because of refinery maintenance, strong Brent said in a statement. prices and a large influx of supplies, including Iranian oil, Thirteen vessels that sailed south from Port Said in a in first quarter. convoy on Wednesday had dropped anchor in the Bitter These buyers and others in Asia are lapping up cheap oil Lakes waiting area until navigation could be resumed, it offered by traders under pressure to clear storage after said. Brent crude flipped into backwardation, with prices for Peter Berdowski, CEO of Dutch company Boskalis, which prompt delivery higher than those for future months, is trying to free the ship, said it was too early to say how traders said. long the job might take. As a result traders were forced to sharply reduce prices "We can't exclude it might take weeks, depending on the for spot cargoes loading in April and May from Europe, situation," Berdowski told the Dutch television programme Africa and the United States for delivery to Asia. "Nieuwsuur". Lockdowns in Europe have also reduced demand, they He said the ship's bow and stern had been lifted up said. against either side of the canal. "Barrels are struggling to find homes in the export market "It is like an enormous beached whale. It's an enormous as Asia still isn’t buying and Europe is struggling as well," weight on the sand. We might have to work with a said Scott Shelton, energy specialist at United ICAP. combination of reducing the weight by removing Crude grades priced on Brent were worst hit, traders containers, oil and water from the ship, tug boats and said, as a wide spread between the global benchmark dredging of sand." and Middle East's Dubai crude price made them least Several dozen vessels, including other large container appealing to Asian buyers. ships, tankers carrying oil and gas, and bulk vessels "China's demand for (Russian) Urals, West African, CPC hauling grain have backed up at either end of the canal to Blend oil just evaporated. Buying from stock is much create one of the worst shipping jams seen for years. more interesting for them now," said a source with a Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), the technical western trading house. manager of Ever Given, said dredgers were working to Caspian CPC Blend crude's discount to dated Brent clear sand and mud from around the blocked vessel while widened to $2.85 per barrel, the lowest since mid-May tugboats in conjunction with Ever Given's winches work to 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic caused oil demand shift it. to plunge, Refinitiv Eikon data showed. Marine services firm GAC issued a note to clients CPC Blend is a popular grade with South Korean refiners, overnight saying efforts to free the vessel using tug boats but this month they also minimized oil purchases amid continued, but that wind conditions and the sheer size of refinery maintenance and buying from storage, two the vessel "were hindering the operation". traders said. Japanese shipowner Shoei Kisen apologised for the Unipec, the trading arm of Asia's largest refiner Sinopec, incident and said work on freeing the ship, which was offered six of its 10 term Angolan crude cargoes in April heading to Europe from China, "has been extremely to the market, traders said. difficult" and it was not clear when the vessel would float An April-loading cargo of Angolan Mostarda crude sold again. this month for $1.50 a barrel below dated Brent, down The ship's GPS signal shows only minor changes to its over a dollar from levels seen in the previous month, they position over the past 24 hours. said. Roughly 30% of the world's shipping container volume "There's just too much supply so buyers want to see transits through the 193 km (120 miles) Suez Canal daily, cheap cargoes," a Singapore-based trader said. and about 12% of total global trade of all goods. Reduced Asian buying also put pressure on U.S. Gulf Shipping experts say that if the blockage is unlikely to be Coast grades. WTI at East Houston, a popular export cleared within the next 24-48 hours, some shipping firms grade, slumped to the weakest since October this week may be forced to re-route vessels around the southern tip as export activity for April has been muted. of Africa, which would add roughly a week to the journey. U.S. crude arrivals in Asia are expected to drop to about 1 March 25, 2021 (continued) 30 million barrels in April, the lowest since June 2020, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al-Saud stood firm, citing a according to initial assessments from Refinitiv Oil return to lockdown in Milan as one of the reasons. Research on Eikon. That decision is now looking wise. European nations However, the recent drop in Brent crude prices closer to including France, Switzerland and Norway have since $60 a barrel if sustained, could help revive Asia's demand tightened restrictions to address rising coronavirus cases in late June or early July, traders said. as OPEC+ prepares to assess their policy on April 1. By that time, Asia's peak maintenance season would Brent crude futures, the industry benchmark, which have ended while inventories would have largely been topped $71 a barrel this month, the highest since before drawn down, they said. the pandemic, have since fallen to about $63. Four OPEC+ sources told Reuters they expect a similar GRAPHIC-Energy transition risks political strife in oil- decision to the last meeting. OPEC+ then broadly stuck to producing states - report its cuts, allowing Russia and Kazakhstan a modest rise of The transition towards green energy imperils oil- 150,000 barrels per day. producing states that have lagged in diversifying their "I won't be surprised to hear the view that it is better to be economies, United Kingdom-based risk consultancy cautious and not add more supply yet," said one OPEC+ Verisk Maplecroft warned in a report on Thursday. source, who asked not to be identified. "Algeria, Iraq and Nigeria will be among the first The energy minister for the United Arab Emirates, casualties of a slow-motion wave of political instability OPEC's third-largest producer, also expressed caution that will engulf an array of oil producing countries over the this week, saying that OPEC+ was unlikely to pump more next 3-20 years as the energy transition takes hold," it oil than the market could handle. said. "The price of oil has not yet stabilised," said another Other states facing the greatest risk include Angola, OPEC source. "Under these circumstances, any OPEC+ Gabon and Kazakhstan, it added. decision to increase production could jeopardise their "With the move away from fossil fuels accelerating, and previous gains in managing the oil market and restoring COVID-19 levelling out any gains oil made over recent stability." years ... time is running out for a number of countries that Another reason for caution is rising Iranian oil exports, have failed to diversify their economies away from which have also weighed on prices. Iran has managed to exporting fossil fuels." boost shipments in recent months despite U.S. sanctions. The outlook for the oil price by mid-century is deeply OPEC members Iran, Libya and Venezuela are exempt uncertain, Verisk Maplecroft said, and could lie within a from the cuts due to challenges facing their respective broad range of anywhere between around $48 to $95 a economies. barrel. Brent crude is currently trading around $63 a The cuts involve OPEC's 10 other members as well as barrel. non-OPEC producers led by Russia. Together their cuts The U.S. Energy Information Administration offers an currently stand at just over 7 million bpd plus an even wider spread, predicting in its annual energy outlook additional 1 million bpd voluntarily pledged by Saudi last month a 2050 oil price of anywhere between $48 and Arabia.