Author Sharik Khan and Nicole Jao
New York (Reuters) -California fuel imports have grown to the largest in May of May, when refining companies appealed to historic trading partners in Asia and, based on shipping data and merchants, have used some unusual ways to compensate for the lack of US oil consumer state no. 2.
The increase in parcels to California pre -reviewed the future of the largest US gasoline and jet fuel markets, which is expected to be more dependent on import after Phillips 66 and Valero closes two major state refining plants to next year, increasing regulatory and decline in demand.
“California’s refinement capacity is decreasing faster than its fuel demand is decreasing, leading to a long-term state-dependent position,” said Kpler analyst Sumit Ritolia.
The total import of California oil products in May has increased to 279,000 barrels per day (BPD), which is the highest since 2021. In June, when a similar volume was imported based on the ship’s tracking kker.
About 187,000 BPDs or nearly 70% of imports came from South Korea and other Asian exporters, historically the best trading partners in California and other Western coastal states, which are geographically isolated from the Gulf coast of the Gulf of Persia.
Recent termination in California, Chevron, PBF Energy and Valero, has caused supplies to supply in the US West Coast markets that required more imports, merchants and analysts said.
“We have seen stricter stocks due to the termination of several oil processing plants,” said Alex Hodes, an analyst at Stonex Oil. He said it increased prices in the northwest of the Pacific Pacific and increased imports.
There were a few days when San Francisco gasoline was more than $ 40 per barrel at the Gulf coast price, almost twice as much as $ 21 USD-21 USD, Woodmac analyst Austin Lin said.
Unusual routes
California imports from the Bahamas, a trading route that is rarely used by West Coast Refiners, reached a record 38,000 BPD in May, Kkerer data showed. The previous record in March was 29,000 BPD.
The route from the Caribbean route was random before this year’s refining disorder, on average 6000 BPD on average last year, data showed.
The Bahamas is not checked by oil, but exports fuel and mixing components transported there from the US Gulf Coast Subtress Center as part of the Century Age US transportation Act to supply fuel to the eastern coast when piping consignments are not enough.