Ras Tanura Oil-Tanker Capacity Seen Dropping 1.7% in Latest Week

The combined carrying capacity of oil tankers calling at Saudi Arabia’s Ras Tanura declined 1.7 percent in the week ended Oct. 5, vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg show.

The implied capacity of vessels calling at the world’s largest crude-export complex fell to the equivalent of 9.17 million barrels a day from 9.33 million barrels for the prior week, according to signals gathered by IHS Maritime, a Coulsdon, England-based research company. The data may be incomplete because not all transmissions are captured.

The Ras Tanura complex, including Ras al-Ju’aymah, is the biggest global crude terminal, according to the website of Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Saudi Aramco. Tankers hauling crude from the Persian Gulf may call at other loading ports before or after Ras Tanura, indicating they might have collected partial cargoes elsewhere.

The table below lists the destination countries of tankers calling at Ras Tanura in the latest week as of about 10:30 a.m. London time. The percentages represent the share of the total number of ships loading at the terminal that each country is due to receive.

Very large crude carriers are assumed to carry 2 million barrels apiece, twice as much as Suezmax tankers. The tally excludes vessels smaller than Aframaxes, each holding about 650,000 barrels.

Country             Barrels        Percentage   Percentage
                                   Oct. 5       Sept. 28
Japan                 10,000,000     16           18
China                  8,000,000     12           12
South Africa          4,000,000      6            3
South Korea          4,000,000      6            9
Egypt                    3,650,000      6            5
U.A.E.                  3,300,000      5            7
India                     3,000,000      5            3
Oman                   2,650,000      4           --
Iran                      2,000,000      3           --
Taiwan                2,000,000      3            6
Thailand             2,000,000      3           --
U.S.                    2,000,000      3            9
Pakistan                650,000        1           --
Saudi Arabia          650,000      1           --
Unspecified        16,300,000     25            9

Barrels                64,200,000
Bbl/day               9,171,429
Source: Bloomberg