No Angolan crude imports have arrived into the United States over the past five weeks, according to data collected by the US Energy Information Administration.
According to preliminary data on crude oil country origins in the agency’s weekly Petroleum Supply publication, the last Angolan crude volumes reported arriving into the country was during the week of February 16, when 137,000 b/d was imported.
While there have been previous weeks in March and November 2017 where no Angolan crude imports were reported, the four-week rolling average for Angolan crude imports has now hit zero barrels/day and this is the longest period since at least 2010 where EIA records have shown no Angolan crude imports into the US.
Due to the trans-Atlantic journey time, Angolan cargoes arrivals into the US correspond to earlier loading programs.
According to S&P Global Platts trade flow software cFlow and Platts analysis, there were no cargoes headed to the US from Angola’s December 2017 loading program and only one cargo booked each in the January and February 2018 loading programs.
US refineries’ consumption of Angolan crude jumped during 2014 and 2015, with US Gulf Coast companies taking heavy but sweet crudes such as Dalia and Saturno to blend with light, sweet shale oil.
But this trend diminished in 2017 and 2018 as imports of other heavy crudes from the Middle East and Latin America have become more attractive pricing-wise vis-a-vis Angolan crude, which saw jumps in prices in early 2017 following increased Chinese buying interest amid the OPEC production cuts of mainly heavy crudes.
However, according to Platts data, cargoes of Angola’s Dalia, Pazflor, Clov, Gimboa, and Olombendo are still occasionally making their way into US refineries, bought by companies such as Tesoro, P66, and PES.
Source:-Hellenicshippingnews.com
