UAE Tanker Queue Extends to Malaysia as ADNOC Sells 130 Million Barrels in Seven Tenders
The UAE pumped a record 4.1 million bpd in June and sold 130 million barrels in seven tenders, with waiting vessels reported off Fujairah, Sohar, India and Malaysia.
Since early June (2026-06-01), ADNOC has sold more than 130 million barrels across an unprecedented seven tenders, traders familiar with the matter told Rigzone, which reported the development on Thursday, August 6 (2026-08-06). The pace has no obvious parallel in recent ADNOC history and reflects a producer that has moved fast since cutting ties with OPEC.5
The UAE left OPEC on May 1 (2026-05-01) and immediately began lifting output. By June (2026-06-30), production had reached 4.1 million bpd, a record high, up from 3.3 million bpd in May, according to oilprice.com estimates. Production increased by 800,000 bpd inside a single month.6
India absorbed much of the surge first. UAE crude imports into India climbed nearly 41% in May (2026-05-31) to 942,500 bpd, a multi-year high that exceeded pre-war import levels, making the Gulf state India's second-largest oil supplier in the first full month after Abu Dhabi's OPEC exit, Reuters data showed. India's total crude intake that month reached 5.27 million bpd, up 15.4% from April, with Russia holding the top spot at about 1.92 million bpd, or 36.5% of total imports.3
Getting those barrels to India and beyond has required routing around the Strait of Hormuz. The UAE has relied on its existing Abu Dhabi Crude Oil Pipeline, the Habshan-Fujairah link known as ADCOP, which can carry up to 1.8 million bpd from Gulf coast fields to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman. Oil loaded at Fujairah reaches Indian west coast refineries without entering the contested strait.1
But the pool of waiting vessels has spread well beyond Fujairah, traders said. Supertankers have been holding off Oman's Sohar, along the west coast of India and as far as Malaysia, according to people familiar with the flows. The geographic reach suggests buyers are prepositioning ships to secure allocation windows as ADNOC maintains its tender pace.5
ADNOC has also moved to absorb freight costs. Upper Zakum crude, one of the UAE's major export grades, has been offered for lifting at Sohar with the producer covering supertanker charter rates at $4 to $5 per barrel, a trader told Reuters. For Asian buyers taking barrels outside the strait, that arrangement substantially reduces delivered cost.4
The permanent bypass capacity is still expanding. A new pipeline designed to roughly double Fujairah's export throughput by 2027 was about 50% complete as of Wednesday, May 20 (2026-05-20), ADNOC's chief confirmed. Abu Dhabi had announced acceleration of the project on Friday, May 15 (2026-05-15). ADNOC is targeting 5 million bpd of total production capacity by next year, a goal brought forward by three years, against 4.85 million bpd it had reported in May 2024. The UAE's energy minister told Reuters last year the country could push capacity to 6 million bpd if circumstances required it, though no update to that ceiling has been issued since.2,1
The strait itself has not settled. Dark crossings, shuttle operations that move barrels from Gulf terminals to vessels positioned just outside Hormuz, picked up again after recent strikes, people familiar with the matter told Rigzone on Thursday, August 6 (2026-08-06). A comprehensive agreement to reopen the strait would likely push more crude into the Persian Gulf export stream, but multiple rounds of inconclusive negotiations have left the market pricing little near-term certainty into that outcome.5
Saudi Arabia is competing for the same Asian buyers through price cuts. Riyadh slashed its crude prices for Asia in July (2026-07-08) by the most in two decades, restarting the Gulf market-share contest after the strait's partial reopening, oilprice.com reported. Refiners and traders consulted by Reuters said they were not convinced even that discount was enough to pull buyers away from logistics already organized around Fujairah and Sohar loading.4
ICE Brent crude front-month was at $87.39 per barrel at 11:02 UTC on Friday, August 14 (2026-08-14), down 0.23% on the day. The more immediate signal traders are tracking is whether ADNOC sustains its seven-tender pace into September and how quickly the new Fujairah pipeline adds throughput once it comes online.5,6