Aramco cancels Juaymah LPG deliveries through March for repairs, traders say

By Shariq Khan and Dmitry Zhdannikov

Feb 26 (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco's 2222.SE Juaymah Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) export terminal is expected to be offline for repairs for at least a month after an outage this week forced the cancellation of cargoes through March, traders said on Thursday.

The lengthy outage at Juaymah, one of the world's largest LPG export terminals, is expected to tighten propane and butane availability in Asia and has driven up prices at a time of high demand for the heating, cooking and petrochemical feedstock fuels.

Aramco on Wednesday said it had halted LPG deliveries from Juaymah after structural damage to a portion of the delivery segment carrying propane and butane on February 23.

Deliveries scheduled over the next few weeks from the Juaymah Natural Gas Liquids facility have been cancelled, the company said. Aramco also said the scope and duration of the impact remain under evaluation.

The Juaymah outage is currently expected to last for at least a month as the company undertakes repairs of the delivery system, two industry sources told Reuters. It was not immediately clear what caused the damage, they said.

When asked for comment on Thursday, Aramco reiterated its statement from Wednesday.

Juaymah is currently the world's seventh-largest LPG export terminal and shipped more than 450,000 tons in average monthly LPG exports in each of the past two years, based on Kpler shiptracking data.

At least 60% of last year's LPG exports from Juaymah went to India, which is expected to be hardest hit by the terminal's outage. Up to 10 LPG cargoes scheduled to load from Juaymah in March for delivery to India have been cut, a refining source told Reuters earlier on Thursday.