GULF CONFLICT: The costs of shipping fuel and crude oil from Qatar are expected to rise after the United Arab Emirates banned vessels that previously called at Qatar from docking at UAE ports, multiple sources from the oil and shipping sectors said.

Buyers are now splitting cargoes on smaller Suezmax ships that carry 1 million barrels to load separately in Qatar and the UAE, the sources said.

CSSA, the shipping arm of French oil major Total, South Korean refiner SK Energy and BP have provisionally booked four Suezmax tankers to load crude and condensate in Qatar and the UAE in the second half of June at rates of WS67.5 to WS68.5, shipping data on Thomson Reuters Eikon showed.

Companies are also arranging to perform ship-to-ship transfers of smaller parcels onto VLCCs in the waters off Sohar, Oman, which has stayed neutral in the conflict, the sources said.