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Qatar Petroleum on March 3 loaded about 712,000 barrels of condensate destined for the Emirates National Oil Co. in the UAE, the first commercial energy trade since the end of the Gulf blockade in early January, according to data analytics firm Kpler.
Qatar Petroleum shipped the condensate from Ras Laffan for discharge on March 5 at the ENOC condensate refinery in Dubai. The vessel Abu Dhabi III that is owned by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., the UAE’s biggest energy producer, was chartered by ENOC, according to Kpler.
ENOC and Qatar Petroleum weren’t immediately available for comment.
ENOC’s refinery — the first refinery in Dubai — was established in 1999 and is based at the Jebel Ali Free Zone. It has a capacity to process 140,000 b/d of condensate, which yields refined products such as naphtha, reformate, jet fuel, diesel oil, fuel oil and LPG for local and export markets, according to ENOC’s website.
Riyadh, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt severed ties with Doha in June 2017. The three Gulf states, along with Egypt, accused Qatar of alleged support of terrorism and Iran, among other charges, which Doha has denied. The other members of the GCC are Oman and Kuwait, which mediated to heal the Gulf rift. The commercial blockade of Qatar prompted it to get closer to Turkey and more importantly to Iran, raising the ire of the US and the three Gulf states.
Throughout the blockade, Qatar kept the gas taps to the UAE open, with flows through the Dolphin pipeline averaging 1.8-2 Bcf/day and meeting about 20% of the UAE’s gas demand, according to Samer Mosis, S&P Global Platts Analytics team lead for EMEA LNG.
