Liquid Bulk News

Italy's gas grid group Snam SRG.MI said on Friday it expected a new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal to become operational by March 2025, allowing the country to diversify further its energy supplies.The floating terminal in the Adriatic sea will have an annual regasification potential of 5 billion cubic metres (bcm), bringing Italy's total capacity to 28 bcm a year, or 45% of the country's gas demand in 2023.The set up of the regasification unit dubbed BW Singapore, which envisages the building of both a platform offshore the costal city of Ravenna and a breakwater, is part of Italy's eff

The Texas energy industry was evaluating the impact from Hurricane Beryl on Monday after the powerful storm lashed the U.S. Gulf Coast, closing key shipping ports and hitting the oil refining and production sectors.Beryl made landfall near the coastal town of Matagorda, Texas, on Monday morning, packing maximum sustained winds of 80 miles per hour (129 kilometers an hour) and posing problems for the heart of the country's energy sector.The storm had strengthened to a Category…

The construction of Germany's first land-based liquefied national gas (LNG) terminal at the inland port of Stade kicked off on Friday with the goal of starting operation in 2027, said the project firm Hanseatic Energy Hub (HEH).The project on the river Elbe is part of Germany's broader efforts to diversify its energy sources after a sudden drop of Russian gas imports following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.The terminal will include two LNG tanks with capacity of 240,000 cubic metres each and will be ammonia-ready as Germany and its neighbours aim to replace gas with green hydrogen and its deriv

U.S. crude oil imports last month rose to a nearly two-year high as refiners scooped up heavy crudes from Canada and Latin America to process into fuels for summer driving season.Imports of crude oil rose to 3.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in May, the highest since July 2022, data from ship tracking service Kpler showed. Imports so far this month have remained strong, at around 2.9 million bpd to date.Fuel demand has remained tepid with product supplied for gasoline at 9.1 million bpd in the week to June 14, slightly below the 10-year seasonal average, data from the U.S.

European Union countries agreed on a 14th package of sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine, diplomats said on Thursday, including their first restrictions on Russian gas.The package bans re-exports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) in EU waters but stops short of banning imports as the bloc did in 2022 for Russian seaborne oil. Some EU countries still import pipeline gas from Russia via Ukraine.However, gas market experts say the measure will have little impact…

Trader Gunvor and French major TotalEnergies have stored North Sea crude in at least four tankers in the past month as on-water stockpiling of the grades hits a 2-1/2 year high, a fresh sign of weak appetite for oil from refiners.At least 2.6 million barrels of North Sea crude grades Forties and Gullfaks have been put in floating storage in Europe, the highest volume since January 2022, according to data from analytics firm Vortexa.Physical oil markets have weakened globally in recent weeks…

Extreme temperatures across Asia are driving up liquefied natural gas (LNG) demand in the region as importers seek cargoes ahead of summer, with imports in South Asia hitting records.This could tighten available supply and further lift Asian spot prices that have already gained a third since April, with heatwaves across South and Southeast Asia boosting air-conditioner use and other cooling demand. Prices are now at a near six-month peak at $12 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) and are expected to remain elevated."Spot prices are now driven by Asian demand.

Israel plans to allow more oil tankers to dock at a Red Sea port in Eilat despite environmental risks, as it strives to maintain energy security amid conflict on multiple fronts, according to Israeli officials and government documents.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office wants to revoke restrictions on the amount of oil that can be unloaded at a jetty in the city, which sits in the middle of a string of resorts and beaches and is adjacent to a fragile coral reef.The curbs…

Russia will likely open its first liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) terminal on the Pacific Ocean coast with joint investments from China by the end of 2025, two industry sources said on Wednesday.Last week, Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) struck an agreement with Chinese petrochemical company Haiwei to finance the marine terminal in Russia's Far East to ship LPG. It did not provide the timings for the project completion.The agreement, signed ahead of President Vladimir Putin's visit to China on May 16-17…

U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) fell for a fourth consecutive month to 6.19 million metric tons in April from 7.61 million in March on production outages, preliminary data from financial firm LSEG showed on Wednesday.Recurring mechanical problems have hit Freeport LNG, the second largest U.S. plant by capacity. Last month, the Quintana, Texas, terminal exported five cargoes for a total of 330,000 tons, compared to 21 cargoes and 1.42 million tons in December.Since mid-January, the plant has been operating without at least one of its three gas-processing trains.

Logistical constraints at the Port of Vancouver mean waterborne oil exports from the highly anticipated Trans Mountain pipeline expansion due to start up on Wednesday may only be around half what the Canadian government-owned corporation has forecast, traders and shipping sources said.The C$34 billion ($24.82 billion) project to nearly triple the flow of crude from Alberta to Canada's Pacific Coast to 890,000 barrels per day is scheduled to start operating on May 1 after years of regulatory delays and construction setbacks.The extra 590…

Enterprise Products Partners on Tuesday said it expects to have two contracts for its proposed deepwater oil export terminal by May 31 and reach a final investment decision before year-end.Enterprise's ambitious Sea Port Oil Terminal (SPOT), proposed off for a site off the coast of Texas, would be able to load two supertankers at a single time. It received a key government license this month, but is yet to sign any commercial customers.The cost of the project has soared to about $3 billion…

Russia remained China's top oil supplier in March, data showed on Saturday, as refiners snapped up stranded Sokol shipments.China's imports from Russia, including supplies via pipelines and sea-borne shipments, jumped 12.5% on the year to 10.81 million metric tons, or 2.55 million barrels per day (bpd) last month, according to data from the General Administration of Customs.That was quite close to the previous monthly record of 2.56 million bpd in June 2023.Seven Russian tankers under sanctions offloaded Sokol cargoes in Chinese ports in March…

The Biden administration said it would not renew a license set to expire early on Thursday that had broadly eased Venezuela oil sanctions, moving to reimpose punitive measures in response to President Nicolas Maduro’s failure to meet his election commitments.Just hours before the deadline, the U.S. Treasury Department announced on its website that it had issued a replacement license giving companies 45 days to “wind down” their business and transactions in the OPEC country's oil…

Russia's seaborne oil product exports fell 4.2% in March from the previous month to 10.178 million metric tons due to unplanned maintenance at refineries and a uel export ban, data from industry sources and Reuters calculations showed.Russia's daily offline primary oil refining capacity has jumped by around a third in March to 4.079 million metric tons from February due to drone attacks, Reuters calculations based on data from industry sources showed.Last month, a fire broke out after a Ukrainian drone attack at the Norsi refinery…

Russia's Gazprom is using a replacement vessel for ship-to-ship loadings (STS) of liquefied natural gas from its Portovaya LNG plant on the Baltic Sea while another ship is repaired, LSEG data showed on Monday.The floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU) Marshal Vasilevskiy is designed to supply Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, between Lithuania and Poland, and ensure its gas security in case of disruption to pipeline supplies from neighboring countries.According to LSEG data, the FSRU Marshal Vasilevskiy was on Monday loading LNG ship-to-ship near Kaliningrad onto the Cool Rover vessel, m

Asia's imports of crude oil are expected to rise to the highest in 10 months as heavyweights China and India lifted arrivals from Russia, but impending maintenance schedules and rising prices mean such levels may not be sustained.The world's top importing region is forecast to see arrivals of 27.48 million barrels per day (bpd) in March, up from 26.70 million bpd in February and January's 27.18 million bpd, according to data compiled by LSEG Oil Research.The bulk of oil arriving in March was arranged before the current increase in prices…

The Russian tanker Liteyny Prospect, hit by sanctions, has docked at the Chinese port of Huanghua to discharge its 700,000-barrel Russian Sokol crude cargo, two sources familiar with the matter said, clearing part of a backlog of cargoes disrupted by sanctions on Moscow's oil trade.The tanker is one of six ships carrying Sokol crude, which India has not been able to import due to payment issues. The six ships had been sailing to China but five of them are floating at sea early this week, shipping data showed, following fresh U.S.

Odfjell Terminals US (OTUS) reports it has completed the construction and commissioning of its Bay 13 at the Houston Terminal (OTH), adding nine new tanks, with a combined capacity of 204,000 barrels. The new tanks are a combination of stainless steel and carbon steel, and each tank has been engineered with positive pressure systems and full automation, Odfjell said. The newly commissioned bay is specifically designed for the storage needs of specialty chemical products, the company added."As we continue to invest in our assets…

Imports of fuel oil bound for the U.S. Gulf Coast fell to a five-year low last month as refiners ran more cheap, heavy Canadian crude and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East pressured fuel oil flows.Fuel oil deliveries to the Gulf Coast dwindled in February to just 318,000 barrels per day (bpd), a 20% drop from the prior month and marking their lowest level since February 2019, data from tanker tracking firm, Kpler showed.Heavy fuel oil feedstocks like high sulfur fuel oil…

Venezuela's oil exports slightly increased in February to some 670,000 barrels per day (bpd), but ongoing shipping delays worsened a bottleneck of tankers waiting to load, according to documents and vessel monitoring data.State-run oil firm PDVSA's customers have rushed to send tankers to Venezuela in recent months to pick up crude and fuel before the United States potentially reimposes oil sanctions.Restrictions could resume on April 18 when an existing license expires, the U.S.

Russia exported more than 700,000 metric tons of oil products from the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk in 2023 using small river barges because of a lack of bigger tankers owing to EU sanctions and price cap limitations, market sources said and LSEG data showed.Some ship owners have avoided Russian ports since the EU embargo and price cap on Russian refined oil products went into effect in February last year, forcing shippers to turn to a so-called shadow fleet of ageing tankers.The shadow fleet has supported the flow of Russian barrels…

A bottleneck of vessels waiting to load crude and fuel in Venezuela has increased in recent weeks as state-run oil firm PDVSA struggles to deliver cargoes on time, according to people familiar with the matter, documents and shipping data.PDVSA has sought to ramp up shipments this month, the documents and data showed, following setbacks in January as outages at Venezuela's main port hit its exports. But the increase has been insufficient to ease the congestion.As of Monday, at least 19 supertankers were waiting to load near Venezuela's Jose and Amuay ports…