The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has recently purchased a cargo of condensate from the Eagle Ford – the premier liquids-rich development located in Texas. As per sources, this deal is the first acquisition of the UAE from the U.S., following the disastrous Qatar crisis, that was acknowledged as one of the most disturbing altercations of recent times. Post cutting off all official relations with Qatar, the Arabian Peninsula nation has been undertaking consistent efforts to replace its condensate supply which it would previously acquire from Qatar. The U.S. thus stands to receive one of the first offers for oil supply from the UAE.

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), the state-owned oil & gas market giant, has signed a tender that declares the purchase of a condensate cargo from the Eagle Ford, which will be delivered to the country in September. While no official confirmation has been provided about the volume of the acquisition, reliable sources cite that the cargo would arrive in a supertanker with a capacity of holding at least 1 million barrels of oil.

Backing up a little for the uninitiated, the May of 2017 witnessed the state-run Qatar News Agency being hit by a disastrous cyberattack, through which articles shedding a positive light on Israel, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Iran, came to the fore. The articles sparked a furor among Saudi Arabia, UAE, and other Middle East countries, sowing the seeds of perpetual animosity in the Arabian Peninsula. The UAE, among the many nations, was the one that openly accused Qatar of attempting to destabilize the Middle East economy by supporting "terrorist, extremist and sectarian organizations,". Post the crisis, most of the Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, cut off all diplomatic relations with Qatar, dropping a bombshell across the globe.

At the onset of July, the CEO of Qatar Petroleum had stated that ADNOC had facilitated the halting of the Qatari condensate shipments. The company also stated that it would contemplate legal action over what it considers a deliberate counterstroke of sorts. As per sources, ADNOC had been receiving up to 1.5 million barrels of condensate from Qatar every month. Post the Qatari disaster, however, ADNOC has tried to replace the condensate supplies with Saudi Arabia’s condensate production from Khuff. However, the production of Khuff is reportedly intended solely for domestic consumption, which has led ADNOC to strike a deal with the United States for oil supply.

For the record, ADNOC has a constrained range of condensate suppliers currently, since supplies across the Asian continent have been tightened subject to the surging oil demand from Indonesia and South Korea. With the Qatar crisis still being a grist for the gossip mills, it remains to be seen how the other Arabian nations earlier depending on Qatari supplies call in the shots to purchase oil from other nations.