U.S. crude oil loadings surged to 4.6 MMb/d last week, an increase of 2.1 MMb/d (87%) from the previous week. Unplanned outages in Kazakhstan and Norway totaling more than 1 MMb/d spurred increased U.S. export demand. Further, there was some recovery from disruptions caused by Hurricane Rafael the prior week. The four-week moving average (dashed red line in below chart) now sits just below 3.7 MMb/d — 206 Mb/d under the year-to-date (YTD) average of 3.9 MMb/d. Exports from the U.S. Gulf Coast increased across all regions, with Corpus Christi seeing the largest gains.
Roughly 6.4 MMbbl were loaded without declared destinations. Of the remaining 25.7 MMbbl with declared destinations, 12.5 MMbbl (49%) went to Europe, 7.3 MMbbl (28%) to Asia, 4.1 MMbbl (16%) to Latin America and 1.7 MMbbl (7%) to Canada. Notably, China’s oil refining activity in October showed a modest uptick as some units resumed operations after planned maintenance, though seasonal demand remains weak amid economic challenges.
Nine VLCCs entered the Gulf Coast for loading for the second consecutive week — the highest since mid-August — potentially foreshadowing sustained elevated export activity in the coming weeks. Nine VLCCs departed the Gulf Coast — five to Asia (two to Taiwan and one each to Japan, Singapore and South Korea) and three to Europe (two to the Netherlands and one to Spain) while one VLCC awaits destination declaration.
