U.S. crude oil loadings averaged 2.9 MMb/d last week, a drop of 1.5 MMb/d from the previous week. Last week’s export volumes fell short of the year-to-date (YTD) average by about 979 Mb/d. Despite this, the four-week moving average was brought up to 3.8 MMb/d (red-dashed line in chart below), with last week replacing a slightly lower volume for the week ended November 8. No exports out of Beaumont or Louisiana were observed last week and volumes from Corpus Christi were their lowest since October 2022. Houston, on the other hand, was up slightly week on week.
Roughly 10.1 MMbbl, or half, of last week’s volumes were destined for Europe, with 7.2 MMbbl (35%) headed for Asia, 1.7 MMbbl (8%) for Canada, 0.8 MMbbl for Africa (3%) and 0.5 MMbbl (2%) for Latin America. Notably, volumes were loaded that were declared for Lagos, Nigeria, home of the Dangote refinery, which hadn’t been observed since late July.
The number of tankers loading crude oil for export across Gulf Coast terminals decreased by 13 to 25 week on week. Of these, four were VLCCs — half the amount of the previous week. However, eight VLCCs entered the Gulf Coast for loading, up four from the prior week, potentially foreshadowing an increase in export activity in the coming weeks. After a YTD high 14 VLCCs departed the Gulf Coast for open waters the prior week, five departed last week — three to Asia (one each to India, China and Taiwan), one to Europe (the Netherlands) and the DHT Europe, which has not yet declared a destination, but we believe is headed to Europe.
