US crude oil exports surged by almost 47% last year, despite the trade war with China, latest industry figures show.
Seaborne crude oil exports reached 128.4m tonnes last year versus the 87.4m tonnes exported in 2018, shipbroker Banchero Costa said.
“Crude production and exports from the US are driving shifts to the global trade patterns — incremental US exports have largely moved to Asia and Europe,” said Ralph Leszczynski, Bancosta’s head of research in Singapore.
“When the trade war between the US and China escalated last year, the flows of trade have also shifted as a consequence.”
The primary destination for US crude is South Korea, with 19.1m tonnes shipped in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 106%. South Korea is the destination of 15% of US seaborne crude exports.
The primary destination for US crude is South Korea, with 19.1million tonnes shipped in 2019, a year-on-year increase of 106%
Bancosta
Exports have also surged to India, reaching 11.4m tonnes in 2019, up over 121% year-on-year. India now accounts for 9% of US seaborne crude exports.
Another 7.3m tonnes were exported to Taiwan, an increase of 18.1%. In contrast, exports to mainland China slumped 44% to just 5.4m tonnes.
Volumes shipped to Europe saw those to the UK jump 66% year-on-year to 11.3m tonnes, while the Netherlands imported 10.5m tonnes, which was up 89%.
Due to the continued infrastructural restrictions at US ports, exports by ship type were relatively evenly spread between vessel categories.
Around 33m tonnes were shipped on VLCCs, 27m tonnes on suezmaxes, 38m tonnes on aframaxes and about 30m tonnes on smaller vessels.
The US still remained a major importer of crude in 2019, but total volumes were down 25.9% to 168.7m tonnes. However, based on current trends, Bancosta said this was likely to change this year.
Mexico remained the largest seaborne supplier of crude oil to the US, with 32.7m tonnes in 2019, or 19% of total US crude imports. But volumes shrank by 9.2%.
Volumes from Colombia increased 8% to 12.7m tonnes, those from Brazil surged 51% to 8.3m tonnes, and supplies from Argentina increased by 21.4% to 1.7m tonnes.
However, imports from Venezuela to the US crashed by 86%, to just 3.4m tonnes, in 2019.
Middle East suppliers also were big losers in supplying crude to the US last year, with imports from Saudi Arabia down almost 50% to just 21.8m tonnes.
Volumes from Iraq and Kuwait were down 37.8% and 26.6% to just 16.3m tonnes and 3.2m tonnes, respectively.
