"Aramco to Suspend LPG Shipments Until Next Month Due to Facility Damage"

Bloomberg News reported on April 28 (local time) that Saudi Arabia’s state-owned energy company Aramco will suspend shipments of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) until next month.

Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) tanker ship. Photo by Reuters Yonhap News Agency

According to Bloomberg, a source familiar with the matter stated that the decision was made after major export facilities were damaged at the end of February. The source also said that buyers were recently notified that shipments from the Juaymah LPG facility would remain suspended until next month.

Aramco postponed LPG exports after a support structure collapsed at the facility in late February, before the outbreak of the U.S.-Iran war. This incident initially drove up LPG prices, and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz due to the U.S.-Iran conflict further intensified supply shortages of LPG in India and other Asian regions.

If Aramco's suspension of LPG exports continues, fuel shortages in India and Southeast Asia are expected to worsen. Bloomberg explained, "Aramco has told some buyers that the Juaymah facility has not yet been repaired, which means that even if the Strait of Hormuz reopens, LPG deliveries will not resume until next month."

On February 26, two days before the outbreak of the Iran war, Aramco announced that shipments from Juaymah would be canceled for several weeks, but repair work appears to have been delayed due to the conflict. Juaymah, Saudi Arabia’s major LPG processing and shipment facility, caught fire earlier this month following an Iranian attack.

The Juaymah facility accounts for 3.5% of the world’s seaborne LPG trade volume.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.