Crude oil exports from the only deepwater port in the United States, Louisiana Offshore Oil Port, doubled in January since December to a record high, driven by strong demand from Asian refineries, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing follow-up data of the ships he had compiled.
Louisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), the only port in the United States capable of handling and fully loading tanks with 2 million barrels of oil each, saw a total of eight tanks that left for India, China and South Korea in January. Those tanks, most of them, transported a total of 15 million barrels of oil from the Louisiana oil export terminal last month – double the volume exported from the port in December and a record for the terminal, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
US crude oil exports are benefiting from a recovery in oil demand in Asia, as well as reductions in term supplies to some Asian customers by OPEC’s largest producers, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Saudi Arabia has reportedly announced reductions in crude oil volumes to be delivered to at least nine customers in Asia and Europe by February. Discounts are made for deliveries under long-term contracts and refer to the heavier classes of Aramco.
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Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer behind Saudi Arabia, has also unexpectedly reduced its long-term supply by 2021 to several major Indian refineries by 20-20 percent.
At the same time, major Asian oil importers are estimated to have increased their imports by 7.5 percent per month in January to 26.14 million barrels per day (bpd), according to tanker tracking data and port compiled by Refinitiv and quoted by Reuters.
China’s oil imports are estimated to have risen 33% to about 12 million bpd, up from just 9 million bpd in December, Refinitiv data showed.
India also increases imports, official government data show that crude oil imports increased by 9.5 per cent in December 2020, while crude oil production increased by 0.9 per cent compared to December 2019, just before the beginning of the pandemic.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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