Turkmenistan has been forced to cut exports of crude oil because of a lack of tankers caused by a dispute between two trading houses. The country usually exports some 2.4 million tonnes of the resource monthly through the Caspian Sea from fields primarily run by Italy’s Eni and UAE’s ENOC. Turkmen producers’ decision to stop using the Azerbaijan route run by state-owned SOCAR and go through Russia with trader Vitol’s assistance may be attributed to a pricing disagreement where SOCAR raised tariffs while Vitol offered lower ones, according to trading sources. Vitol lacked the tankers to fulfill its commitment.
Turkmenistan has been forced to cut exports of crude oil because of a lack of tankers caused by a dispute between two trading houses. The country usually exports 200,000 mt of the resource monthly through the Caspian Sea from fields primarily run by Italy’s Eni and UAE’s ENOC. Turkmen producers’ decision to stop using the Azerbaijan route run by state-owned SOCAR and go through Russia with trader Vitol’s assistance may be attributed to a pricing disagreement where SOCAR raised tariffs while Vitol offered lower ones, according to trading sources. Vitol lacked the tankers to fulfill its commitment.