Crude exports from the U.S.’s only deep-water port, Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, doubled in January from December to a record high, driven by strong demand from Asian refiners, it reported Wednesday. Bloomberg, citing the ship tracking data he had compiled.
Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the only U.S. port capable of fully handling and loading supertankers with 2 million barrels of oil each, sailed a total of eight tankers bound for India, China and South Korea in January. These tankers, mostly supertankers, shipped a total of 15 million barrels of oil from the Louisiana oil export terminal last month: twice the volume exported from the port in December and a record high for terminal, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
U.S. crude exports benefit from a recovery in oil demand in Asia, as well as a reduction in term supply to some Asian customers by major OPEC producers, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Saudi Arabia has reportedly announced reductions in crude oil volumes to be supplied to at least nine customers in Asia and Europe by February. The cuts are made for shipments with long-term contracts and affect Aramco’s heavier grades.
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Iraq, OPEC’s second largest producer behind Saudi Arabia, would also have unexpectedly cut its 2021 term supplies to several major Indian refiners by 10-20 percent.
At the same time, it is estimated that the main oil importers in Asia have increased their imports by 7.5% per month per month until January, to 26.14 million barrels per day (bpd), according to and port data compiled by Refinitiv and cited by Reuters.
It is estimated that Chinese oil imports have risen 33 percent to around 12 million barrels per day, up from 9 million barrels per night in December, Refinitiv data showed.
India is also increasing imports, with official government data showing that crude imports increased 9.5 per cent in December 2020, while crude production increased 0.9 per cent compared to December 2019, just before the start of the pandemic.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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