部分中国炼厂转售中东原油，报价较迪拜基准升水6美元/桶

Middle Eastern crude bought by some Chinese refiners is being offered for resale, according to traders, as they seek to take advantage of surging prices after hostilities ramped up in the region.

The oil has already exited the gulf and can be delivered as early as this month, said the traders. Crude is being offered to South Korean and Taiwanese buyers and include grades such as Upper Zakum from the United Arab Emirates, they added, asking not to be named as they’re not authorized to speak publicly.

The offers came directly from trading houses and other intermediaries at a premium of $6 a barrel to the Dubai benchmark on a delivered basis to Asia, traders said. Some of the shipments were originally purchased at levels roughly near parity to the same benchmark via tenders.

It’s unclear how much oil from the Persian Gulf was available for sale. Chinese refiners are expected to replace these Middle East barrels with Russian oil such as ESPO, which is much cheaper on a delivered basis, making the move profitable.

Flows from within the Persian Gulf have been disrupted after tensions between the US and Iran escalated over the past week, causing visible traffic through the Strait of Hormuz to collapse. More recently, exports from Saudi Arabia via the Red Sea are also at risk following a threat by Houthi militants.

Chinese firms including state-owned Unipec, Cnooc Ltd. as well as independent refiner Shenghong Petrochemical Group Co. were among buyers which snapped up cheap cargoes from the UAE in previous tenders. Sinopec, the parent of Unipec, Cnooc and Shenghong didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

Separately, there was selling activity by Chinese refiners on a key crude trading window run by S&P Global Energy unit Platts on Tuesday, including by Unipec and Shenghong, according to the traders.