Aramco ships Saudi crude to China via ship-to-ship transfers outside Hormuz

AI digestMimile.ai EditorialAugust 27, 2026 at 01:00 AM

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Aramco ships Saudi crude to China via ship-to-ship transfers outside Hormuz

Saudi Aramco is offering more September crude to Asian buyers through ship-to-ship transfers outside the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters. Two VLCCs carrying a combined 4 million barrels of Saudi crude were headed to China after receiving cargoes off Sohar, Oman. The arrangement allows Aramco to shoulder the riskiest leg of the voyage while buyers avoid sending their own vessels into the strait.

Key Facts

Saudi Aramco has opened sales of Arab Medium and Arab Heavy using ship-to-ship transfers outside Hormuz for a second consecutive week.
Two VLCCs carrying a combined 4 million barrels of Saudi crude were headed to China after receiving cargoes through ship-to-ship transfers off Sohar, Oman.
One VLCC is expected at Ningbo on September 15 and the other at Zhanjiang on September 12, with both cargoes destined for Sinopec.
Aramco resumed loading tankers at Ras Tanura and Juaymah earlier this month after a three-week pause.
Aramco is routing more crude west through the East-West pipeline and Egypt’s Sidi Kerir terminal to serve European customers without traversing Hormuz.

Ship-to-Ship Transfer Model

Saudi Aramco is offering more September crude to Asian buyers through ship-to-ship transfers outside the Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters. The model moves Saudi crude through the dangerous part of the journey, then transfers it to another tanker off Fujairah in the UAE or Sohar in Oman. The buyer gets its cargo without having to send its own vessel into Hormuz. Aramco has now opened sales of Arab Medium and Arab Heavy using the arrangement for a second consecutive week.

China Deliveries

Two VLCCs carrying a combined 4 million barrels of Saudi crude were headed to China after receiving their cargoes through ship-to-ship transfers off Sohar, according to Vortexa and Kpler data cited by Reuters. One is expected at Ningbo on September 15 and the other at Zhanjiang on September 12, with both cargoes destined for Sinopec. The strategy represents another evolution in Saudi Arabia’s increasingly complicated effort to keep crude flowing despite two compromised export corridors.

Export Corridor Adjustments

Aramco resumed loading tankers at Ras Tanura and Juaymah earlier this month after a three-week pause. The company is simultaneously routing more crude west through the East-West pipeline and Egypt’s Sidi Kerir terminal to serve European customers without traversing Hormuz. For Asian buyers, geography makes that solution considerably less attractive because China sits on the other side of Hormuz. The ship-to-ship arrangement effectively splits the voyage in two, allowing Aramco to shoulder the riskiest leg before handing the crude to buyers outside the strait.

1 source

Aramco ships Saudi crude to China via ship-to-ship transfers outside Hormuz

oilprice.com

OilPrice

Finance

Reuters reports Saudi Aramco sold 4 million barrels outside Hormuz to China

Saudi Aramco sold at least 4 million barrels of crude loading outside the Strait of Hormuz to two Chinese refiners, trade sources told Reuters on Thursday. PetroChina and Sinochem each bought 2 million barrels of Arab Medium and Arab Heavy at premiums. Aramco resumed loading from inside Hormuz last week and has more tankers waiting to load.

Finance

Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea oil exports fall 41%, reroute options narrow to Suez pipeline

Saudi Arabia’s crude oil exports from its Red Sea port of Yanbu dropped 41% from a March peak to 2.39 million barrels daily in June, as Houthi attacks forced vessels to avoid the southern Red Sea, according to Windward data. Two LNG tankers were struck by drones in Egypt’s Damietta port on the Mediterranean, underscoring the risks to the remaining export corridor through the Suez Canal and SUMED pipeline. The decline came even as OPEC’s top producer scrambled to redirect flows after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz.

Finance

COSCO and CMES route oil tankers via Fujairah, Oman to bypass Gulf chokepoints

Since late July, two Chinese state shippers, COSCO Shipping Energy Transportation and China Merchants Energy Shipping, have stopped sending oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and Bab al-Mandeb and are instead loading cargoes at Fujairah and at or near Omani ports. The two companies control more than 100 VLCCs and handled roughly half of China's Middle East crude imports before the Iran war began in late February.

Finance

Saudi Oil Detour Adds $5 a Barrel but Secures Chokepoint Hedge

Saudi Arabia is routing crude to Asia via Egypt’s SUMED pipeline and around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, adding roughly $5 per barrel to shipping costs. The detour allows the kingdom to bypass both the Strait of Hormuz and the Houthi-threatened Bab el-Mandeb, though it nearly triples voyage time from about 19 days to 48 days. Aramco is considering a separate pricing mechanism for oil loaded at Egypt’s Mediterranean port of Sidi Kerir to reflect the additional expenses.

Aramco ships Saudi crude to China via ship-to-ship transfers outside Hormuz

Key Facts

Ship-to-Ship Transfer Model

China Deliveries

Export Corridor Adjustments

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