Egypt has emerged as the major supplier of oil to Saudi Arabia. This month, Saudi will take 3.2 million barrels of the power-station fuel from the northeast African country, the highest in at least six years, according to Vortexa Ltd. data compiled by Bloomberg. For its part, Egypt’s own imports of the product from Russia are set to soar to 1.8 million barrels, the most since at least 2016.
The sudden surge in Egyptian inflows and outflows bears the hallmarks of at least some Russian-origin fuel going to Saudi Arabia. It follows a similar hike in deliveries to the world’s largest crude exporter from Estonia, a nation that has no oil refinery.
“It appears that increasing volumes of Russian fuel oil are making their way to Saudi Arabia via Egypt,” said Jonathan Leitch, an oil market analyst at Turner, Mason & Co.
The Russian cargoes are heading to the Red Sea terminal of Ain Sukhna, where Aramco Trading Co. has storage. From there, the fuel oil is being shipped across the sea to multiple ports in western Saudi Arabia.
Overall deliveries to the kingdom of the power generation and shipping fuel are expected to climb to about 9 million barrels in June, the highest since November 2020, according to industry and Vortexa data compiled by Bloomberg. That means the north African Country accounts for more than a third of them.
Read also; Israel & Egypt on Road to Increase Gas Exports to the EU
