Flexible loading tests risk appetite through Hormuz
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company has issued its fourth spot tender this month, offering Upper Zakum, Umm Lulu and Das grades for June to August loading, according to trading sources cited by Zawya. Buyers can bid for up to 2 million barrels. The tender closes on 23 June, with offers valid until 25 June. These volumes sit on top of at least 30 million barrels of UAE crude that ADNOC has already sold for June to August loading in the first half of June, largely to Asian refiners and global trading houses.
Crucially for risk pricing, ADNOC has given buyers a choice of loading points that span both sides of the Strait of Hormuz. Buyers can lift cargoes on a free-on-board basis from Zirku or Das Island, both located inside the strait. They can also load from storage at Fujairah, which lies outside Hormuz on the Gulf of Oman. Ship-to-ship transfers between Fujairah and Sohar, and offshore Malaysia, are also available. ADNOC has additionally offered a delivered basis option. This shifts freight and some security decisions back to the seller.
The offer structure keeps core commercial terms consistent with past tenders. Cargoes will be priced against the grades’ official selling prices, the Dubai benchmark, or other established benchmarks, according to the trade sources. The geographic flexibility effectively turns this ADNOC Hormuz crude tender into a live gauge of how much risk premium buyers still attach to shipping through the chokepoint.
Early gauge of post-truce trade normalisation
The Strait of Hormuz was blocked during the recent US-Iran conflict. This disrupted flows through the narrow waterway that handles a large share of Gulf crude exports. An interim peace deal this week has raised expectations that normal trade will resume. However, shipping patterns and insurance conditions typically lag political announcements. ADNOC’s latest tender offers one of the first market-based signals of whether refiners and traders are ready to send more tonnage back inside the strait.
Meanwhile, ADNOC has also asked term customers in Asia to send vessels into Hormuz to load crude, according to three sources with knowledge of the matter. One source said Iraqi state oil marketer SOMO has made a similar request. This underlines a broader regional push to restore pre-conflict loading patterns through the strait. Kuwait Petroleum Corp has in parallel issued a tender to sell crude for July delivery. This reinforces the sense that Gulf producers expect buyers to re-engage with standard Gulf export routes.
For investors, the tender outcome will offer practical insight into how fast Gulf crude trade is normalising after the truce. If buyers favour FOB loadings from Zirku and Das, it will suggest that concerns around Hormuz transit risk and war-risk insurance are easing. If they instead concentrate on Fujairah storage and ship-to-ship options, the market will be signalling a preference to retain optionality around the chokepoint. That would keep security premia embedded in routing decisions.
Either way, the scale of recent ADNOC sales and the strong interest from Asian refiners point to resilient demand for UAE barrels into the third quarter. The key question now is the route, not the volume. Investors and policymakers should watch tender allocation patterns, chartering data, and any change in insurance terms over the coming weeks, as the ADNOC Hormuz crude trade becomes an early proxy for how durable the current easing in Gulf transit risk really is.
