Japan refiners say crude supply sufficient through November
Japan's refiners have enough crude through November, the Petroleum Association of Japan said, as Saudi shipments continue via transfers outside the Strait of Hormuz.
Japanese oil refiners have secured adequate crude supplies through November, the Petroleum Association of Japan said, even as renewed fighting between Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthis raised concerns about a wider Middle East conflict.
Oil prices had climbed to near four-month highs earlier in the week after reports that loadings at Saudi Arabia's Red Sea export hub of Yanbu were suspended and that Riyadh had cancelled some deliveries to Europe following damage to its East-West pipeline in an attack.
PAJ President Shunichi Kito told reporters in Tokyo that shipments from Saudi Arabia have not halted completely, helped by ship-to-ship transfers taking place outside the Strait of Hormuz. In some cases, he said, oil is moved through the strait at Saudi Arabia's own risk before being transferred to buyers outside the Gulf. He cautioned, however, that he could not guarantee the arrangement would hold.
Kito, who also chairs Idemitsu Kosan, Japan's second-largest refiner, said companies have drawn on stockpiles built from earlier releases of the country's national oil reserves to cover needs through November, without requiring fresh releases.
He added that additional drawdowns from the national reserve could not be ruled out, noting the difficulty of predicting how the situation will develop.