Kuwait Petroleum offering ship-to-ship transfers outside Hormuz to buyers, official says

Kuwait Petroleum Corp is providing the option of ship-to-ship transfers outside the Strait of Hormuz for safe transportation of petroleum products to their final destinations, according to Emad A. M. Al-Kandari, the company's deputy managing director of International Marketing. Speaking at the APPEC industry conference, Al-Kandari mentioned that this option is available whenever it is safe to pass ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

The company has not specified which petroleum products are sold under these ship-to-ship operations. However, it was recently offering naphtha on a delivered ex-ship basis in a few tenders in August and September, with some cargoes selling at premiums of up to $60 per ton to buyers in Japan, as per market sources.

Prior to the U.S.-Iran war, Kuwait Petroleum Corp typically offered naphtha on a free-on-board basis. However, with the onset of the war in February, the company resumed cargo offers in June for the first time since the conflict began. Kuwait exported around 200,000 barrels per day of naphtha on average in the first two months of the year, but this dropped to zero in April. As of the latest data, the company's exports in the last two months have been at half of the pre-war levels.