South Korea’s base oils exports to the Middle East surged to a record-high in October, helping to absorb surplus volumes from the Asia-Pacific market.

Total exports to the UAE and Saudi Arabia combined exceeded 55,000 tonnes in October, government data showed.

The volume was up from already-firm levels of more than 34,000 tonnes in September and well above typical levels of around 21,000 tonnes/month over the past year.

The shipments accounted for a record 14% share of South Korea’s total base oils exports in October.

The share exceeded the 10% level for just the sixth time ever.

A large portion of the shipments were likely to arrive in the Middle East throughout the month of November.

Their arrival would coincide with the start of the scheduled shutdown of a key base oils unit in Saudi Arabia for maintenance work.

The maintenance work is expected to last until the end of the year.

The timing and size of the surge in shipments from South Korea suggested a large portion of the supplies was set to cover for the drop in regional output during the maintenance work.

The plant-shutdown also raised the prospect of tightening availability in other import markets like India that are also key buyers of supplies from Saudi Arabia.

An extended wave of shipments from South Korea to India pointed to such a dynamic.

Its base oils exports of close to 120,000 tonnes to India in September and in October were the highest in seventeen months.