Saudi Arabia denies purchasing 25 oil tankers, rejects Iraqi claims

Saudi Arabia on Tuesday denied claims by Iraqi officials that the Kingdom had purchased 25 oil tankers and that the move had contributed to a rise in the cost of transporting Iraqi crude.

The Saudi Ministry of Energy said the Kingdom had not purchased the 25 tankers referred to by Iraqi Oil Minister Basim Mohammed Khudair al-Abbadi and Ali Nizar al-Shatari, chairman and director general of Iraq’s State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), during a session of the Iraqi parliament.

The ministry said the claim was “incorrect,” while stressing that its clarification did not affect the Kingdom’s right to make commercial and investment decisions in accordance with its needs and interests.

It said the sharp increase in oil transportation costs was instead driven by the military escalation in the region, Iranian attacks on vessels, disruptions to navigation through the Strait of Hormuz, increased shipping risks and insurance costs, and a decline in the number of tankers willing to operate in the region.

Those factors had pushed regional shipping costs to “exceptional levels,” the ministry said.

The ministry added that attributing the rise in the cost of transporting Iraqi oil to Saudi Arabia did not reflect the factors actually driving the increase in shipping costs.