March base oil imports from Qatar fall

The delivery of base oils originating from Qatar to key markets like Germany and Hong Kong fell in the month of March amid a pause in supplies reaching the US.

Those markets, as well as other regular outlets like China and India, took delivery in March of more than 125,000t of base oils originating from Qatar. The volume was down from more than 150,000t in February and the lowest this year.

The slowdown in total shipments mostly reflected a pause in the delivery of supplies to the US in March. The last time there were no US base oil imports from Qatar was last October.

Hong Kong’s base oil imports from Qatar also fell sharply in March from the previous month to less than 20,000t. The volume was the lowest in three months.

These markets took delivery of a total of more than 420,000t of base oils from Qatar in the first three months of this year. The volume was the second lowest since the third quarter of 2020.

But imports have held unusually firm at more than 410,000t per quarter since then. Imports had exceeded the 400,000t per quarter level just once in the three years before 2020.

Premium-grade base oil prices have climbed in recent months amid an industry-wide rise in base oil prices.

But the rise in Group III prices has lagged the rise in Group I and Group II prices, whose surplus availability has been tighter.