Crude oil loadings across the Gulf Coast fell to 3.6 MMb/d from last week’s 4.6 MMb/d. Given the substantial decline, it should be no surprise that almost every port experienced a drop, with many terminals loading no vessels at all. Only Houston managed to stay essentially flat, at 1.1 MMb/d. The big surprise was the even larger drop in European-destined cargos. They dropped in both share and absolute volume, down to 29% of U.S. exports at 7.5 MMbbl, the third-lowest level in 16 months.
Featured Articles
- Analyst Insight
Exports Rebound to 3.9 MMb/d
Crude Oil exports rebound with European volumes continuing to climb.
- Analyst Insight
Alberto Helps Push U.S. Crude Exports to Lowest Since July 2023
Crude oil loadings across the U.S. Gulf Coast plummeted by 1.4 MMb/d, dropping to 3 MMb/d — the lowest level since mid-July last year.
- Blog
Shake It Up - Why SPOT Will Change Everything in the U.S. Crude Oil Export Market
If you think, as we do, that (1) U.S. crude oil production is likely to increase by 1.5 to 2 MMb/d over the next five years, (2) almost all those barrels will be light-sweet crude that needs to be exported, and (3) exporters will overwhelmingly favor the marine terminals that can accommodate Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCCs), it would be hard to ignore the game-changing impacts that Enterprise Products Partners’ planned Sea Port Oil Terminal could have. SPOT, which could be completed as soon as 2026, will have robust pipeline connections from the Permian and other shale plays and be capable of fully loading a 2-MMbbl VLCC in one day, enough to handle virtually all the incremental exports we’re likely to see over the next five years. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the fast-increasing role of VLCCs in U.S. crude oil exports and the potentially seismic impacts of the SPOT project.
