The delivery of base oils from Qatar to key global outlets fell in November to an eleven-month low.The slide in shipments for a second month coincided with scheduled plant maintenance work in the Mideast Gulf that already cut supply of premium-grade base oils.Qatar is another key producer of premium-grade base oils.The country’s shipments have previously typically rebounded after a low volume of supplies the previous month.They have previously held at lower levels for an extended period because of factors like plant maintenance work.Global Group III base oils prices held relatively firm on an outright basis and especially relative to Group I and Group II base oils during the fourth quarter of last year.Prices got support from steady demand and tighter supply.Availability of Group III base oils improved from late last year following the completion of maintenance work at several plants.US posted prices for Group III base oils were finally cut at the start of this year for the first time in several years.The key markets of US, Europe and Asia-Pacific took delivery of less than 120,000t of base oils from Qatar in November, government data showed..The volume fell from less than 125,000t the previous month to the lowest since December 2021.The drop in supplies cut total shipments from Qatar to 1.71mn t in the first eleven months of the year. The volume was down 6pc from 1.82mn t during the same period last year.The fall in shipments masked a surge in supplies to the US, where demand and prices for premium-grade base oils remained strong throughout last year.US imports of almost 490,000t from Qatar in the first eleven months of the year rose by almost a fifth from around 410,000t during the same period in 2021.US imports of more than 40,000t in November rose from around 26,000t in October to levels that were similar to typical monthly import volumes over the past year.Europe’s shipments from Qatar fell in 2022. But supplies of around 32,000t in November rebounded from less than 24,000t in October to levels that were also similar to typical monthly volumes over the past year.The outlier was Asia.The region’s imports of little more than 42,000t in November were down from more than 74,000t in October and from typical levels of more than 90,000 t/month over the past year.The Asia-bound supplies fell in November from October. The shipments to US and Europe fell in October from September before rebounding in November.The change in flows helped to spread out a slowdown in shipments to all the regions during October and November combined.
