Oman’s Ministry of Energy and Minerals has sold 1 million barrels of crude to load at the end of August in a prompt tender after one of the crude units at the Sohar refinery was unexpectedly shut, several traders said on Wednesday.

The tender was awarded to trading firm OQ late on Tuesday, the traders said.

The sale came after the 198,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Sohar refinery ran into operational issues and shut one of its two crude distillation units (CDUs), said a source with knowledge of the matter.

Some derivative units at the refinery site have also cut their production rates because of the unexpected outage, the source added.

It was not immediately clear how long the CDU will be shut. The Oman energy ministry and OQ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

OQ was likely to supply the cargo to Duqm, the other refinery in Oman, another of the sources said.
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Trixie Yap and Florence Tan; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Kim Coghill, Tom Hogue and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)