Aramco Ships 4 Million Barrels to PetroChina via Sohar Transfers as Yanbu Loadings Fall Short
Saudi Arabia has opened a ship-to-ship bypass off Oman's coast to keep September crude flowing to China as its Red Sea export route underperforms.
Two very large crude carriers carrying a combined 4 million barrels of Arab Medium and Arab Heavy crude were bound for China as of Wednesday (2026-08-26), having taken on their cargoes through ship-to-ship transfers off Sohar on Oman's coast, according to Vortexa and Kpler data cited by Reuters. The buyer was PetroChina, and the cargoes are destined for September delivery.7
Aramco is resorting to the Sohar handoffs because loadings through Yanbu, the Red Sea terminal that has served as Saudi Arabia's main workaround since the Strait of Hormuz was effectively closed by the US-Iran conflict, have fallen short of targets. Two bypass routes, and neither is fully reliable.7,2
The Yanbu option looked decisive in the early weeks of the war. Aramco ramped its pipeline capacity to 7 million barrels per day in eight days, keeping roughly 60% of pre-war exports flowing westward through the Red Sea, according to reporting at the time.1 But running a pipeline at surge capacity and sustaining that over months are different propositions, and the Sohar transfers suggest the gap has been widening.7
Saudi crude exports have recovered in aggregate. Tanker-tracking compiled by Bloomberg showed 6.3 million barrels a day leaving the kingdom in the six days through Wednesday (2026-07-01), roughly equal to the 2025 average and about 90% of February volumes before the war began.5 But that number blends Yanbu shipments with Persian Gulf loadings and does not isolate how each route is actually performing.5
June, by comparison, ran at 4.45 million barrels a day — the highest since conflict broke out at the end of February, though still well below pre-war peaks. To get there, Aramco needed to restart Ras Tanura, its main Persian Gulf export terminal, and still made rare spot sales: at least 6 million barrels across three supertankers bound for South Korea, Japan and China, traders told Reuters. Spot business of that volume is exceptional for Aramco, which ordinarily operates on term contracts.4
Chinese demand added another complication. Some Chinese refiners had not nominated term cargoes from Saudi Arabia for August loading, and others were not allocated any supply, according to mid-July (2026-07-14) reporting — a combination of weak domestic demand, competition from rival producers, and disruption-related shipping complications.6 The September bookings with PetroChina represent a partial recovery in that relationship, but the route taken to fulfil them underscores that Saudi supply chains are nowhere near normalised.
Ship attacks continued to complicate the picture through late June. Energy shipping in Hormuz slowed after an assault on a container ship on Thursday (2026-06-25), though West Asia producers pressed ahead with oil and LNG loadings despite the strikes, shipping data showed. Persian Gulf crude exports had recovered to at least 75% of pre-conflict levels by that point, aided by resumed loadings at Ras Tanura.3,4
Saudi Arabia is not the only Gulf producer building around the strait. The UAE announced on Friday (2026-05-15) that it would accelerate construction of a new pipeline to double Fujairah's export capacity by 2027. The existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline can carry 1.8 million barrels per day; a new line would substantially expand the UAE's ability to bypass Hormuz without STS complications. ADNOC is targeting 5 million barrels per day of production capacity by next year, a goal it brought forward by three years.1
ICE Brent crude front-month was at $88.29 per barrel at Friday's (2026-08-28) close, with Dubai crude at $88.78, reflecting no obvious disruption premium. Physical barrels are moving, which has kept futures markets calm. But the Sohar workaround adds freight cost and operational risk that do not settle cleanly into futures prices — and if Yanbu loadings remain below target into autumn, buyers sourcing on spot terms may find the STS solution harder to replicate at scale for October cargoes.7,5