MERCURY HOPE

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BP offloads oil cargo to Shandong refiner after two-month delay on water

Oil major BP has started discharging about 1 million barrels of Angolan crude to a Chinese independent refiner, after holding the oil on water for two months due to slowing demand from private refiners, sources said on Thursday. The Mercury Hope supertanker, chartered by BP and carrying about 2 million barrels of Angolan oil, offloaded part of the cargo in late May at Qingdao and has since been at sea in nearby waters, said the sources with knowledge of the matter. The tanker began offloading the remaining part of its cargo to Shandong Qingyuan Group, a privately-controlled refiner based at Linzi, Shandong province, late on Wednesday. The group, which operates a 104,000 barrels per day refiner, is a regular customer of BP which has expanded its crude oil marketing to Chinese independent refiners since 2015 after China opened crude oil imports to nearly 40 local plants.