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Oil & Energy
India-bound Adnoc LNG Tanker Crosses Hormuz Strait, Bloomberg Analysis Shows
An India-bound tanker laden with liquefied natural gas from state-owned UAE energy giant Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has crossed the Strait of Hormuz, according to a Bloomberg analysis of ship-tracking data published Wednesday.This is in addition to the recent transit of at least two non-Iranian oil supertankers through the crucial waterway, which is responsible for almost 20% of the global energy flows.The Hormuz Strait has been effectively shut for LNG traffic since the start of the Iran war on Feb. 28, cutting off almost one-fifth of the global supply of the super-chilled gas, the report said.Adnoc has also shipped three other cargoes from the Persian Gulf on tankers, with the last of these detected in western India, the report said.The latest shipments are a fraction of pre-war volumes when about three LNG tankers, primarily carrying fuel from top producer Qatar, exited the Hormuz Strait every day, the report said.In response to anquery, an Adnoc spokesperson said the company does not comment on the position, movements, or routing of its vessels as a matter of policy.
Oil & Energy
EMEA Natural Gas Update: Futures Slide as Peace Process Survives Renewed US Strikes
European natural gas futures were down on Wednesday as peace talks appeared to remain on track despite US strikes against Iran earlier this week during a ceasefire.The front-month Dutch TTF contract was down 2.26% to 46.400 euros ($54.03) per megawatt hour, while the UK NBP front-month contract fell 2.32% to 112.650 British pence ($1.51) per therm.On Tuesday, Iran's Foreign Ministry condemned the latest US strikes as "an act of bad faith" and "a definitive violation of the ceasefire," but it did not pull out of peace talks being mediated by Pakistan and Qatar.In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, US President Donald Trump said that Iran's enriched uranium would either be "immediately turned over to the United States to be brought home and destroyed," or destroyed in place, "in conjunction and coordination" with Iran.Tehran, however, has not agreed to this yet, with a senior official telling Reuters earlier this week that the nuclear issue was not part of the preliminary agreement with the US.Meanwhile, the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-fifth of global LNG flowed before the war, remained effectively closed for the 13th week running, with just two vessels transiting over the past 24 hours, according to the Hormuz Strait Monitor.This has become a significant concern for European buyers, according to Daniel Hynes, a senior commodity strategist at ANZ, as the Strait's protracted closure has forced Asian buyers to procure supply from LNG spot markets.At the same time, European markets are grappling with low inventory levels, at just 38.52% of capacity, compared to 46.31% during the corresponding period a year ago, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.Inventories were also significantly below the five-year average for this period, at 52.5%, according to the Swiss Federal Office of Energy.This comes at a critical juncture for the region, as it experiences "record-breaking heatwaves" with a heat dome developing over the continent, according to Severe-Weather EU. That means gas-fired power stations will need more fuel to meet demand from air conditioner use.
Oil & Energy
US Sends Crude to Asia for First Time Since 2022- Reuters Analysis
A US Strategic Petroleum Reserve cargo is sailing to the Philippines, marking the first such American oil shipment to Asia since November 2022, according to a Reuters' analysis on Tuesday citing ship-tracking data.The deployment comes as a direct response to severe structural dislocations in Asian energy grids, which typically rely on the Strait of Hormuz for roughly 80% of their total petroleum imports.With the vital chokepoint heavily restricted for over three months due to the ongoing US-Iran conflict, a severe deficit of Middle Eastern barrels has driven spot premiums to record highs, forcing regional refiners to look across the Atlantic to avoid catastrophic supply shortfalls.According to maritime intelligence data from Kpler, the transaction is being executed via the Greek-flagged Very Large Crude Carrier Arosa, which was chartered by multinational energy major Shell (SHEL), the report noted.The vessel loaded about 616,000 barrels of domestic sour crude from the Bryan Mound SPR facility in Texas during early May, alongside a co-loaded commercial batch of 700,000 barrels of the deepwater US sour grade, Thunder Horse.The combined 1.3-million-barrel hardware layout is scheduled to arrive at the Bataan refining hub in the Philippines in early July, breaking a multi-year gap since the Southeast Asian nation last imported a US crude barrel in February 2020, the report said.