Saudi Aramco Resumes Crude Loadings at Ras Tanura After Four-Month Halt

Saudi Aramco resumed crude loadings at its Ras Tanura terminal on Friday after a near four-month halt, shipping data showed. Two Very Large Crude Carriers controlled by the company's shipping arm Bahri were seen loading crude at the world's biggest oil port, while a third headed toward the terminal and a fourth waited nearby. Each VLCC can load 2 million barrels.

The resumption came even though a ship belonging to Taiwan's Evergreen Marine was hit by an unknown object in the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday. British navy agency UKMTO paused its operation to escort ships through the strait after the attack. Two U.S.

Officials told Reuters that Iran had fired on the ship. Ras Tanura sits on Saudi Arabia's eastern coast on the Gulf and is west of the Strait of Hormuz. It used to export more than 5 million barrels per day of crude before the conflict.

The country's largest domestic refinery, with capacity of 550,000 barrels per day, is also located there and was shut during the war as a precautionary measure. Aramco last loaded a cargo from Ras Tanura port for China on March 8, according to LSEG data.

Saudi crude exports had slumped to about 4 million barrels per day in the past three months from more than 7 million barrels per day in February.

Crude shipments through the Strait of Hormuz rose this week to their highest level since the conflict broke out. Two empty VLCCs named Natsumi and Halti entered the Gulf on Friday to load Iranian oil. Two laden VLCCs exited the strait carrying UAE oil, and one VLCC headed to Zirku port carrying UAE oil.

Global oil prices fell more than $1 a barrel on Friday. Shut-in production across the Gulf fell to 9.7 million barrels per day three weeks earlier, according to Rystad Energy. "Two million barrels a day came back online in three weeks, and the recovery is spread across the region," Rystad Energy's MENA research director Aditya Saraswat said in a note.