Some refiners in Japan this week rushed to buy Oman’s crude for earlier loadings after Saudi Arabia shut down its key pipeline bypassing the Strait of Hormuz, traders with knowledge of the purchases told Bloomberg on Wednesday.
Late last week, Saudi Arabia was forced to temporarily shut down the East-West oil pipeline following drone attacks launched from the territory of Iraq close to the Iranian border on Thursday. The shutdown of the pipeline is a precautionary measure, after the attacks resulted in a number of injuries, the…