Key Gulf producers Saudi Aramco and Adnoc are increasingly relying on shuttling crude from inside the Mideast Gulf to offshore Sohar and Fujairah in a bid to bring more trapped barrels to the market – a risky maneuver that has seen several ships struck by Iranian munitions (MEES, 14 August).

Exact figures are somewhat opaque: cargo tracking firms using AIS struggle to capture cross-strait movements, and satellite imagery trackers are hindered by government restrictions on releasing imagery for commercial use. But several UAE-based sources confirm that shuttling activity has picked up significantly in the last two weeks – so much so that STS operations in Sohar face bottlenecks due to a lack of fendering manpower and space for the operations. (CONTINUED - 880 WORDS)

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