Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) has offered prompt-loading fuel products on a spot basis for the first time since the start of the Iran war, four sources familiar with the matter said.
Separately, KPC was offering four million barrels of crude via tender. The oil, which is outside the Persian Gulf, is offered to buyers in Asia, a fifth source with direct knowledge of the matter said.
The state firm offered at least one 90,000 tonne (670,500 barrel) cargo of 10ppm sulphur gasoil and one 55,000-60,000 tonne (489,500-534,000 barrel) cargo of naphtha for June loading via private negotiations, three of the sources said.
It could not immediately be determined if any deals were completed. The force majeure declared by KPC in March for exports remains in place, the sources said.
KPC declined to comment on the matter.
Buyers have the option to either lift the fuel cargo via ship-to-ship transfers in regions outside the Strait of Hormuz such as the west coast India or Sohar in Oman, the sources said. There is also an option to load the cargo from Fujairah tanks, one of the four sources said.
In May, KPC's naphtha exports rebounded to more than 40,000 tonnes, Kpler shiptracking data showed, after cargoes were halted in March and April.
Term deliveries for naphtha are expected to start in July, according to two separate sources who are KPC's offtakers.
For diesel, KPC last sold one spot diesel cargo in January via a sales tender, Reuters' records showed, with shiptracking data showing that exports fell to five-year lows in March and April.
The Hafnia Despina is being chartered by KPC to load around 90,000 tonnes of refined fuels via ship-to-ship transfer off the west coast of India on June 17-19 either to Singapore or northwest Europe, data from two shipbroking sources showed.
(Reporting by Trixie Yap; additional reporting by Siyi Liu and Yousef Saba; editing by Jason Neely)
