Aramco Cuts Crude Shipment To Asian Region For Second Month In April

In another setback for global energy security amid the ongoing war in West Asia, oil giant Saudi Aramco is reported to have cut crude supply to Asian buyers for a second month in April.

The world’s largest oil exporter is supplying only Arab Light crude exported from the Red Sea port of Yanbu to term customers in April, according to a report by Reuters.

The Saudi Arabia-based company is avoiding exports through the conflict-hit Strait of Hormuz. It has diverted export supplies to Yanbu. China’s top refiner Sinopec is set to load about 24 million barrels of Saudi crude from Yanbu in March, according to the report.

Saudi Arabia has exported 4.355 million barrels per day of crude so far in March, down from 7.108 million bpd in February, the report said, citing data from analytics firm Kpler.

The supply of fuel has been upended, with the Strait of Hormuz coming to a close after the outbreak of the war in late February. The narrow passage off the coast of Oman and Iran used to account for almost 20 percent of the world’s total oil supply.

Oil prices have surged almost 50 percent since the onset of the war. The commodity has risen to $112 per barrel in the last three weeks from around $65 per barrel before the war.

While the International Energy Agency has announced the release of over 400 million barrels of crude from strategic oil reserves of its 32 member countries, the agency has also asked to limit fuel usage to face the crisis for a longer duration than anticipated earlier.

The release of 400 million barrels by IEA countries is the largest in its history. The last time the agency released crude from strategic reserves was during the Russia-Ukraine war.

Restricted supplies to Asia by Aramco may lead to larger consequences for the world’s largest oil-consuming region, impacting the growth prospects of countries like India.