Poland's 210,000 b/d Gdansk refinery is increasing production after completing scheduled maintenance earlier this month. Most of the units taken off line for between late February and early April have restarted, as planned, operator Rafineria Gdanska said on 7 April. Maintenance was conducted on crude and vacuum distillation units, a diesel hydrotreater, the MHC mild hydrocracker, a reformer, the jet fuel Merox and hydrogen generation units, and two sulphur recovery units. A second phase of planned maintenance at Gdansk takes the refinery's three base oil units off line from 8 April until mid-May. Rafineria Gdanska is a joint venture of state-controlled Orlen with 70pc and state-controlled Saudi Aramco holding 30pc. Orlen is planning maintenance on a hydrocracker at its 373,000 b/d Plock refinery in Poland from 13 May until 24 June. The Polish company's 63,000 b/d Kralupy refinery in the Czech Republic has been shut down for scheduled maintenance since mid-March and should restart in early May. Orlen's 190,000 b/d Mazeikiai refinery in Lithuania was off line for 30 days of planned maintenance last month.
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Q&A: Hormuz tensions put spotlight on marine insurance
Q&A: Hormuz tensions put spotlight on marine insurance
Singapore, 14 April (Argus) — As tensions in the Middle East disrupt global shipping routes, insurance has become a critical factor for vessel operators and cargo owners. George Grishin, chairman of UK-registered Lloyd's insurance broker Oakeshott Insurance Group, spoke with Argus on 13 April about how the shipping industry is responding to the announcement of a two-week ceasefire, the insurance options currently available, and the potential long-term implications that the US-Iran war could have for relations between shipowners and insurers. How has the insurance market reacted to the announcement of a two-week ceasefire? The announcement briefly encouraged insurers to return to the market, particularly for quoting war risk cover for vessels transiting high-risk areas, such as the strait of Hormuz. War risk premiums are extremely sensitive to geopolitical developments, and rates can change daily. A ceasefire needs to be stable and verifiable before insurers are willing to reduce prices or expand capacity. What is really happening is that insurers are reassessing risk in real time, and in some cases, they simply cannot accept it. There were reports that insurers withdrew cover entirely during the escalation. Is that accurate? Not exactly. Much of this confusion comes from a misunderstanding of different types of marine insurance. Physical damage to vessels and cargo is covered by hull and machinery (H&M) or war risks insurance. Protection and indemnity insurers (P&I) cover a shipowner's third-party liabilities, not damage to the ship itself. Typical P&I cover includes third-party liabilities, such as crew injury or pollution, for example. War risk insurance for physical damage has remained available in many cases, but often at a higher cost and with tighter conditions. How does war risk insurance work when a region is classified as high-risk? Once an area is listed by the Joint War Committee (JWC), war risk cover for calls in that area is automatically excluded. Shipowners or cargo owners then have to buy additional cover for specific voyages or periods, typically priced as a percentage of the vessel or cargo value and valid for just seven days. This applies to ports as well as sea passages. The most recent expansion of the listed areas prior to the current escalation took place in December 2023, when Guyana was added. The list was subsequently updated on 3 March 2026, with the inclusion of several countries that had not appeared on it for many years — Bahrain, Djibouti, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. At the same time, the geographical scope was widened to cover parts of the Persian/Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, parts of the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Aden and the southern Red Sea. What kind of costs are shipowners facing today? Additional war risks premium (AWRP) levels for tankers and bulk carriers stood at around 1pc on 13 April with a 35–50pc no claim bonus (NCB) applied to vessels remaining in the Mideast Gulf. NCB is a discount given by insurers if no claim is made during the period of cover. AWRPs for H&M in the Gulf of Oman and in the Bab el-Mandeb strait were reported at around 0.5pc and 0.75pc, respectively. Passage through the strait of Hormuz is considerably more complex. At one point during the ceasefire discussions, insurers quoted around 3pc of value for a single passage for a seven-day period on 10 April, but those quotes were quickly withdrawn. Why is the strait of Hormuz particularly difficult to insure? The probability of an incident is simply too high, especially for vessels carrying oil or gas. Insurers have to price risk based on probability, and in some scenarios the likelihood of a vessel being hit could be extremely high. Charging higher premiums of, for example, 25–50pc of vessel value would theoretically reflect that risk, but such rates are commercially unviable, no shipowner could afford them. In those cases, insurers may refuse to quote altogether. Are all vessels treated the same from an insurance perspective? No. Flag, ownership, and cargo type matter enormously. Indian- and Chinese-flagged vessels have faced fewer restrictions in recent weeks, and container ships and bulk carriers are generally seen as lower-risk than tankers. Insurers also scrutinise ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) and compliance very carefully before offering cover. Why do some owners still insure vessels that are stuck in port? This is where the London Blocking and Trapping Addendum becomes important. It extends war risk cover to situations where a vessel is unable to leave a port or waterway for a continuous agreed period, typically six or 12 months, due to war-related closure. If that period is exceeded, the vessel can be treated as a total loss, even without physical damage. Does blocking and trapping insurance require a separate policy? No. It is an extension of existing war risk cover. It costs more, but it protects against long-term immobilisation rather than just physical damage. This type of cover proved crucial for vessels trapped, for example, in Ukrainian ports in 2022–23, where some owners eventually received full compensation for their ships. Could recent events change the relationship between shipowners and insurers? Yes. Trust has been strained, particularly when owners see insurance becoming unavailable just when they need it most. But insurers face their own constraints — they cannot price risk at levels that are mathematically accurate but commercially impossible. The long-term challenge will be finding a sustainable balance between affordability and realistic risk pricing in an increasingly unstable geopolitical environment. What needs to happen for insurance conditions to improve? Time and clarity. Insurers need a longer observation period to assess whether a ceasefire is genuinely holding. Only then will premiums stabilise and capacity return. Until that happens, insurance will remain costly, selective, and highly conditional. By Anna Cherkizova Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
IEA warns Hormuz oil export recovery will take months
IEA warns Hormuz oil export recovery will take months
London, 14 April (Argus) — Oil exports through the strait of Hormuz are likely to take around two months to stabilise once the waterway reopens, the IEA estimates. Disruptions to shipments through the strait due to the US-Iran war have forced producers in the Mideast Gulf to shut in part of their output because of limited alternative export routes. The IEA estimates that the shut-ins cut global oil supply by 10.1mn b/d in March and forecasts a further 2.9mn b/d decline in April. A sustained recovery in production depends on restoring exports through Hormuz. Laden tankers would first need to exit the Gulf, after which empty vessels inside the waterway would load cargoes and draw down stocks, the IEA said. "It will be impossible to start upstream production or refining unless there is a foreseeable loading programme with adequate available storage at ports," the IEA said. Tanker availability could slow that process. Around 390 vessels, including 210 laden tankers, were trapped in the strait when the conflict began on 28 February, the IEA said. Since then, a net 49 tankers have exited. Many ballast tankers waiting outside Hormuz have since moved to other markets, meaning it could take longer for ships to return to pick up the first cargoes once exports resume, the agency added. Iraq may face particular difficulties in restarting exports quickly because of limited storage capacity at its ports. Upstream constraints could further delay a production recovery. Half of Mideast Gulf oil fields have "sufficient reservoir pressure and fluid characteristics" to return to pre-war output within about two weeks once exports resume, rising to 80pc after roughly one month, the IEA said. The remaining 20pc may prove harder to restart because of issues such as "pressure depletion or flow impairment from wax or asphaltene deposition". Many of these more complex fields are in Iraq and Kuwait, the agency said, adding that some lost pre-war production may not return. "Some fields may require specialised oil field services, including workovers, coiled-tubing units, chemical treatments or perforation," the IEA said. Fields relying on secondary or enhanced oil recovery could face longer restart times because they depend on uninterrupted supplies of gas, power, steam and chemicals, the agency added. By Aydin Calik Opec+ crude production declines 'mn b/d Mar Feb Mar vs Feb Saudi Arabia 7.25 10.40 -3.15 Iraq 1.57 4.57 -3.00 Kuwait 1.19 2.54 -1.35 UAE 2.37 3.64 -1.27 Bahrain 0.04 0.18 -0.14 Iran 3.63 3.69 -0.06 source: IEA Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Oil demand to fall at fastest pace since Covid: IEA
Oil demand to fall at fastest pace since Covid: IEA
London, 14 April (Argus) — Global oil demand is set to contract at the fastest pace since the Covid-19 pandemic as the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz causes the largest supply disruption in history, the IEA said today. In its latest Oil Market Report (OMR), the Paris-based agency said the war in the Middle East caused global oil supply to plummet by 10.1mn b/d in March and demand to fall by 800,000 b/d on the year. The supply losses have forced refineries in the Middle East and Asia to cut runs by around 6mn b/d in April, the IEA said, with total global runs expected to fall by 1mn b/d in 2026. The agency forecasts global oil demand will drop by 2.3mn b/d on the year in April, 1.5mn b/d in the second quarter and by 80,000 b/d for 2026 as a whole. The IEA's previous forecast for this year was 640,000 b/d of demand growth. Should disruptions continue beyond May, demand destruction would be much higher, the IEA said. The IEA's forecasts are in sharp contrast to those of Opec, which this week kept its global oil demand growth forecast unchanged at 1.38mn b/d , despite the war in the Middle East. The largest hit to demand has so far been felt in Asia, the agency said, with petrochemical producers slashing output due to a loss of LPG/ethane and naphtha feedstocks. These two products alone account for 1.8mn b/d of the projected fall in demand for April, the IEA said. Households and businesses have also been impacted and flight cancellations in the Middle East, Asia and Europe have caused sharp falls in jet fuel demand, the IEA said. Beyond the immediate physical supply shock, the IEA said soaring oil prices would be the main driver of demand destruction "especially in the OECD where the pass-through into retail fuel prices is already well advanced". The IEA presented two scenarios on how the supply shortages could unfold. In its base case, the agency assumes oil flows gradually return from May, which would flip the market from a supply deficit into a surplus in the second half of the year. In a protracted scenario where supplies remain constrained for longer, demand could fall by 5mn b/d year-on-year on average from 2Q26 through 4Q26, the IEA said. This would lift the global call on stocks to an "untenable" 6mn b/d and force additional demand destruction measures to "balance the market and avoid even deeper economic damage." Current supply through the strait of Hormuz remains highly restricted. The IEA said that loadings of crude, natural gas liquids and refined projects in the Mideast Gulf averaged around 3.8mn b/d in early April compared to more than 20mn b/d in February before the war. While Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Iraq have increased exports through routes that bypass the strait — from about 4mn b/d before the war to 7.2mn b/d — the net loss in exports from the region is more than 13mn b/d, the IEA said. The outages have seen global observed oil inventories to fall by 85mn bl in March, with stocks outside the Mideast Gulf falling by 205mn bl. But with the Mideast Gulf unable to use the strati of Hormuz, floating storage of crude and oil products inside the region rose by 100mn bl and onshore stocks by 20mn bl. By Aydin Calik Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
Western Australia buys gasoil for strategic reserve
Western Australia buys gasoil for strategic reserve
Sydney, 14 April (Argus) — The government of Western Australia (WA) has bought 4mn litres (25,157bl) of gasoil from independent supplier Cambridge Gulf as part of its plan to set up its own strategic reserve independent from Australia's national stockpile, it announced today. Through an arrangement with independent fuel supplier Cambridge Gulf, the gasoil will be stored in Wyndham in the Kimberley region and 100pc owned by the state. Wyndham is in the far north of WA. Wyndham has only received one part-cargo delivery of gasoil so far this year, according to vessel tracking data from Vortexa. The 49,200 deadweight-tonne Pacific Montana discharged 21,700 bl of gasoil in February after making much larger deliveries to Port Hedland and Geraldton in late January. Gasoil is needed in remote regions of WA like the Kimberley region for long-haul transport as well as power generation because communities there are not connected to the power grid. Gasoil demand in the region has waned in recent years following closures of mines like Kimberley Metals Group's 1.5mn t/yr Ridges Iron Ore project and Rio Tinto's Argyle diamond mine. Around 85pc of gasoil sales in WA are non-retail ( see graph ). The mining and agriculture sector receives the bulk of those supplies. The minimum stockpile obligation has not been working optimally for the state because not every fuel supplier has large fuel storage there, WA energy minister Amber-Jade Sanderson said in a press conference on 12 April. By Tom Woodlock Western Australia diesel sales in 2025 (mn bl) Send comments and request more information at feedback@argusmedia.com Copyright © 2026. Argus Media group . All rights reserved.
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