Written by Arathi Somasekhar and Laura Sannicola
HOUSTON (Reuters) – An oil tanker carrying U.S. light crude to Britain was stuck for 10 days in the Atlantic Ocean, changed course and was near Spain on Tuesday, according to the vessel’s monitoring data.
Seaways Yosemite, chartered by Swiss operator Trafigura Group and which loaded about 600,000 barrels of WTI Midland crude in early June in Corpus Christi, Texas, has indicated the Murcian port of Cartagena as its new destination.
The ship had previously headed to Birkenhead-Tranmere station near Liverpool, UK, according to ship-tracking data on Refinitiv.
It was not immediately clear what caused the delay and the transfer.
Data provider IIR Energy discovered the fault last month at Britain’s 220,000-bpd Stanlow Essar Oil refinery near Birkenhead-Tranmere. IIR added that the Stanlow Crude Oil Processing Unit has resumed operations after an unexpected mechanical problem.
Trafigura declined to comment. Repsol, which owns a refinery in Cartagena, and Essar did not respond to requests for comment.
Another vessel, the Unity Venture, chartered by BP and loaded in Houston in early June with 700,000 barrels of WTI Midland oil, was stranded in the Atlantic for about 14 days.
He will head to Fredericia, Denmark, according to a person familiar with the matter and the ship’s tracking data.
BP did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Crossbridge Energy Partners, which owns and operates Crossbridge Energy’s Frederica refinery, did not respond to requests for comment.
Although some vessels are chartered with the option to sell the barrels on the water, the vessel accrues a demurrage fee for being in use beyond the normal time period, adding to shipping costs.
(Reporting by Arathi Somasekhar in Houston and Laura Sannicola in Washington, D.C.; Editing in Spanish by Benjamin Mejias Valencia)
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