ADNOC is in talks with international trading firms to sell additional offshore crude through long-term contracts in 2027, Bloomberg reports

• ADNOC traditionally favours direct sales to end-users
• The state-owned energy company is showing greater willingness to use intermediaries as Persian Gulf oil marketing practices shift following months of regional conflict, the report states

Gulf national oil companies have historically marketed the bulk of their crude through long-term term contracts sold directly to refiners, retaining control over pricing, destination and customer relationships. The pattern in this region has been that intermediaries enter the chain only when conditions make direct placement harder, whether because of disrupted logistics, shifting buyer appetite, or conflict-related risk premiums on freight and insurance that traders are better positioned to carry and arbitrage. A shift of this kind, if confirmed, would enlarge the share of Gulf barrels moving through the trading houses, which tend to re-market cargoes on a spot or short-term basis; comparable episodes have increased destination flexibility and spot liquidity in the relevant grades, at the cost of some transparency over where barrels ultimately land. The structural read is that producer marketing models follow the risk environment: conflict and rerouted shipping have repeatedly pushed state sellers toward counterparties able to absorb freight, insurance and sanction-adjacent complexity. Worth watching is whether the contracts carry the destination restrictions and official-price-linked terms typical of Gulf term sales or more market-linked pricing, and whether peer producers in the region adopt the same channel, since coordinated shifts in marketing practice have historically signalled a durable change in how Atlantic-basin and Asian refiners access Middle East supply. As a reported negotiation rather than a signed deal, the signal is directional on structure rather than on near-term volumes.