Saudi Arabia is offering European customers more crude oil for the remainder of October and November, and Poland's Orlen is expected to get at least four October-loading Saudi cargoes, shipping data showed and sources said, adding to signs of a recovery in supplies.
Saudi Arabia has been ramping up crude flows through its East-West Pipeline to Red Sea export terminals since early October after drone attacks, which it blamed on Iraqi militia, forced the pipeline's shutdown on September 11, leaving customers like Poland racing to find alternative supplies.
A spokesperson for state oil company Aramco declined to comment on Thursday.
Aramco approached traders this week, offering additional crude oil cargoes for delivery into Europe in late October and into mid-November, three trade sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
The volumes could help make up for cargoes European customers missed in September, two Mediterranean trade sources added.
Poland's Orlen is expected to get at least four October-loading Saudi cargoes from Egypt's Sidi Kerir terminal,which is used to export Saudi crude, shipping data showed and a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
In September, Orlen rushed to secure alternative supplies from the North Sea and other regions after Aramco informed European customers that some late-September cargoes would be cancelled.
Saudi Arabia's state-owned Aramco has been Orlen's largest oil supplier since 2022, accounting for about 40 per cent of its purchases.
The Polish refiner said it had lined up additional cargoes from Norway, Great Britain, Algeria, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and the Americas to offset disruptions to Saudi deliveries.
Europe imported 460,000 barrels per day of crude from Saudi Arabia and Sidi Kerir in September, according to Kpler data, down from 900,000 bpd in August and the lowest monthly total since December 2024.
Riyadh has been facing mounting attacks from Yemen's Houthis as the Middle East conflict escalates. Aramco's headquarters in Dhahran suffered extensive damage after an attack on October 13, three people with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.
(Reporting by Marek Strzelecki in Warsaw, Ahmad Ghaddar and Robert Harvey in London and Nerijus Adomaitis in Oslo; Editing by Toby Chopra and Elaine Hardcastle)
