Libyan crude will soon be making the long journey to a refinery in New Zealand in a rare export route for the North African country’s oil, which usually finds homes in Europe and sometimes Asia, trading sources said Thursday.
The Suez Fuzeyya was placed on subjects on a Zueitina/Ras Lanuf to Whangarei voyage to carry 1 million barrels of crude for a lump sum of $5 million for December 17-19 loading, sources said.
The cargo, which will include the Amna grade along with a mix of other Libyan crudes, was chartered by Azerbaijan’s Socar Trading, sources added. A source at the company declined to comment on the details of the trade. This will be the first new time New Zealand has imported Libyan crude in almost three years, according to S&P Global Platts estimates.
The crude will be processed at the 125,000 b/d Marsden Point refinery in Whangarei, operated by Refining NZ. A representative at Refining NZ was unavailable for comment. New Zealand mainly relies on crude oil imports from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Russia, Indonesia and Malaysia.
