The Marshall Islands-flagged British Eagle offloaded some 400,000 barrels of Yemeni crude at Italy’s Trieste port this week. While Italy has proven Yemen’s sole European customer since war erupted in 2015 (MEES, 15 September 2017), this may not prove the final destination. Trieste also supplies Austria and southern Germany.
Unlike previous cargoes which were loaded with Masila crude from PetroMasila’s Blocks 10 &14 at the eastern port of Ash Shihr, the most recent loading took crude from the Bir Ali terminal. Bir Ali exports crude produced from the central Shabwa basin, and specifically from Block S2 operated by Austria’s OMV (MEES, 3 August 2018). OMV restarted production last year and previously stated “all crude produced in 2018 was sold on the international market,” but it is conceivable that this has now changed. (CONTINUED - 127 WORDS)