Qatar Says Fellow OPEC State U.A.E. Halts Oil Imports in Row

EghtesadOnline: Qatar Petroleum is taking “legal actions” after Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. declared force majeure to halt shipments from Qatar of condensate, a light oil liquid, according to QP’s chief executive officer. An Adnoc official said currently there is no force majeure imposed on Qatari cargoes.

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05 July 2017

Qatar will continue to supply natural gas via pipeline to the United Arab Emirates and Oman, QP CEO Saad Sherida Al Kaabi told reporters Tuesday at a news conference in Doha. Al Kaabi said force majeure was imposed “illegally” on the condensate shipments.

Adnoc has communicated to Qatar Petroleum that currently there was no state of force majeure imposed on Qatari fuel cargoes, an Adnoc official said by text message, asking not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter. Adnoc’s contracts to import Qatari condensate by sea ended in June, and the company has made arrangements for two remaining cargoes of 500,000 barrels each that it has yet to purchase under the deal with Qatar Petroleum, the official said, without elaborating.

“We are the ones who should be calling force majeure because we have the restrictions, not them,” Al Kaabi said. “They have enforced force majeure on that contract illegally in our view and we are taking legal actions on that.”

According to Bloomberg, the U.A.E., of which Abu Dhabi is the capital, joined a Saudi-led campaign to cut ties with their smaller neighbor Qatar. The U.A.E., Saudi Arabia and Egypt accuse Qatar of supporting and funding terrorist groups and gave the country until Wednesday to cut those ties. Qatar denied the accusations. The U.A.E. and Qatar are both members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

The U.A.E. imports condensate by ship and last month banned deliveries of any goods from Qatar by sea. Al Kaabi didn’t say whether the condensate shipments had already stopped. Force majeure is a legal status protecting a party from liability if it can’t fulfill a contract for reasons beyond its control.

Adnoc, Abu Dhabi’s government-owned oil producer and refiner, first agreed in 2014to buy Qatari condensate. Emirates National Oil Co., the refiner in neighboring Dubai, signed a similar deal to buy the Qatari fuel in an effort to diversify supplies from its main seller, Iran. ENOC offered last month to sell its cargoes of Qatari condensate loading in June and July instead of taking delivery.