Saudi Aramco has resumed crude oil loadings from its terminals inside the Strait of Hormuz, ending a three-week pause as Middle Eastern producers expand shadow networks to bypass shipping hazards. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump delayed imposing massive import tariffs on Canada following a breakthrough to revive the Keystone XL pipeline project.
Global market
Saudi Aramco has resumed crude oil loadings from its terminals inside the Strait of Hormuz, ending a three-week operational pause. Ship-tracking data from Kpler and Vortexa confirmed that three very large crude carriers (VLCCs)—the Malaysia Prosperity, Algeria Prosperity, and Singapore Prosperity—each loaded approximately 2 million barrels of crude between August 12 and August 16 at the Ras Tanura and Juaymah ports. This resumption comes as regional producers, including the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, and Qatar, circumvent transit risks by moving more than 4 million barrels per day through a shadow export network of AIS-dark tankers and off-shore transfers. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent projected that these alternative logistics will render the Strait of Hormuz “irrelevant” within two years.
Meanwhile, global oil prices stabilized with Brent crude trading near 90 dollars per barrel, down from its wartime peak of 126 dollars. The refined products market remains tightly squeezed, as global July refinery throughput plunged by 5 million barrels per day year-on-year due to Middle East disruptions and Ukrainian attacks that dragged Russian processing to a 20-year low. Seizing on this energy crunch, Palantir chairman Peter Thiel purchased a 1 percent stake in Argentine shale developer Vista for 76 million dollars to bet on the Vaca Muerta formation, following a meeting with Argentina’s President Javier Milei. Additionally, the American Petroleum Institute (API) reported that US crude inventories fell by 328,000 barrels for the week ending August 14, as distillate stocks sank further.
Russia & CIS
US President Donald Trump announced a three-day delay on imposing 50 percent tariffs on Canadian goods, citing progress toward a trade agreement and a potential revival of the Keystone XL pipeline expansion. Meanwhile, Russia’s pivot to Asian energy buyers accelerated as July coal exports to India surged nearly 2.9-fold year-on-year to 3.62 million tons, which included 1.8 million tons of coking coal and 1.82 million tons of thermal coal. This pivot comes as Russia’s seaborne crude exports fell for a fifth consecutive week to their lowest levels since April, prompting Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak to order oil companies to eliminate regional fuel supply imbalances. Underscoring the retail strain, Rustem Sadykov, the general director of fuel operator Chepetsknefteprodukt, noted that a standard 30,000-liter fuel tanker is exhausted after just 750 refuelings per day under current demand.
Infrastructure safety concerns also intensified in the region. A sabotage attack triggered a major explosion on the export gas pipeline leading from the Al-Jabsa processing plant in Syria’s Hasakah province, as confirmed by the state-run Syrian Petroleum Company. Additionally, temporary airspace closures disrupted flight operations at airports in Nizhny Novgorod, Tambov, and Yekaterinburg due to regional security precautions.
Armenia
While Armenia reported no direct changes to its domestic electricity, natural gas, or refined petroleum prices on August 19, its broader economic integration within the EAEU was highlighted by Russia’s veterinary watchdog, Rosselkhoznadzor. The agency expressed readiness to lift restrictions on Armenian agricultural imports, pending Yerevan’s submission of a compliance framework aligned with EAEU veterinary and phytosanitary requirements. This progress toward normalized agricultural trade is crucial for Armenia’s trade balance, as its transport and logistics corridors are already strained by wider Eurasian fuel supply crises and the steady decline in Russian seaborne oil exports to a yearly low since April.
To protect its domestic market from these supply-chain shocks, Armenia continues to rely on strategic EAEU protocols. These agreements secure duty-free, fixed-rate natural gas and motor fuel imports from Russia, shielding local consumers from the extreme price spikes seen on global spot markets, where volatile international market price assessments are currently driven by global refinery disruptions and the ongoing Middle East conflict.
📊 I can compile a detailed chart mapping the decline of Russian seaborne oil exports alongside the surge in coal exports to India to help you visualize Eurasian trade realignments.