DAMMAM — Saudi Arabian Oil Co. doubled the number of crude tankers booked to ship oil to the Gulf of Mexico this month as two people familiar with its US refinery operations said a damaged crude unit may restart in December. The tanker charters were arranged by Saudi Arabian Oil's Vela International Marine Ltd. unit. However, as of press time, company officials could not be reached for comments. The company's shipping unit booked eight very large crude carriers to load about 16 million barrels in October, compared with four ships a month so far this year, according to data from Athens-based Optima Shipbrokers Ltd. Motiva Enterprises LLC will open the 325,000 barrels-a-day unit as early as the first week of December, industry insiders said. The 600,000 barrels-a-day refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, halted the unit in June following contamination that caused cracks in stainless steel pipes. Repairs may be completed this month and testing will take place in November, said the people, declining to be identified because they aren't authorized to speak for the refinery. Motiva said July 19 it expected to restart the unit early in 2013. The crude unit began operating in May as part of a $10 billion expansion that pushed the refinery's crude capacity to almost 600,000 barrels a day, making it the largest in the US. A one-way journey to the US Gulf from Saudi Arabia takes about 40 days to complete, according to Optima. That implies the cargoes will probably be discharged in the second or third week of December. VLCCs hauling Middle East crude to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico are losing $22,840 a day, according to data from the London-based Baltic Exchange. – SG/Agencies
