NIOC Secures Term Contract For Soroush/Nowruz Crude
The National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has secured a term contract for Soroush/Nowruz crudes, which it has so far found difficult to market. NIOC Executive Director of International Affairs Hojatollah Ghanamifard said on 18 May that the company had secured a term contract to supply 60,000 b/d of Soroush/Nowruz crude into Asia, with shipments having started in April. MEES understands that the buyer is Indian company Reliance, which operates a coking refinery for which the heavy, sour Soroush and Nowruz crudes are ideally suited. The company has been one of the main buyers of Soroush/Nowruz crude to date, with a small volume also being delivered to Shell, which was development operator for the fields. There have also been some sales into the Asian and European spot markets.
The contract is likely to help ease the build-up of produced Soroush and Nowruz crude oil, which NIOC has stored in moored VLCCs rather than sell at a discount, in a bid to secure niche pricing for the grades. NIOC has been using seven VLCCs with a combined capacity of 14mn barrels for offshore storage, but MEES soundings indicate that the total stored volume reached almost 16mn barrels at one point recently. Now the volume in tankers is falling, and agency reports state that NIOC recently booked a 130,000 DWT vessel for storage and blending. NIOC also recently conducted a trial run at Bandar Abbas refinery of a blend of Soroush/Nowruz crude mixed with South Pars condensate, and proposes to deliver 120,000 b/d of the blend (two-thirds heavy crude to one-third condensate) to add to the refinery’s crude stream in place of more easily exportable grades (MEES, 22 May).
NITC Charters Two ULCCs For Storage
The National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) has chartered two ultra-large crude carriers (ULCCs) for a minimum of 90 days to use for crude oil storage, it was announced on 25 May. The combined capacity of the two vessels is 4.4mn barrels, adding to the seven very large crude carriers (VLCCs) with a combined capacity of 14mn barrels already in use to store crude from the Soroush and Nowruz oilfields while the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) establishes a market for the heavy, sour grades.
