Saudi Arabia’s oil exports to the US skyrocketed in the last month – By Natasha Turak & Abigail Ng (CNBC) / April 17 2020
- Saudi oil shipments to the U.S. have nearly quadrupled since February to a whopping 1.46 million barrels per day in the first two weeks of April, after more than doubling in March.
- The boost in exports comes against the backdrop of one of the most dramatic periods in oil market history: Record oil output from the world’s largest oil producers met with eviscerated demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Saudi Arabian oil exports to the U.S. more than doubled from February to March as oil prices crashed and American shale producers reeled over demand destruction from the coronavirus pandemic, data from analytics firm TankerTrackers.com shows.
Saudi crude shipments to American ports went from an average of 366,000 barrels per day (bpd) in February to 829,540 bpd in March — a multiple of 2.27. For the last month, that means Saudi Arabia shipped around 25 million barrels of crude to the U.S., a level not seen since December 2018.
And data from TankerTrackers.com shows that figure is on track to be surpassed in April. Satellite tracking of VLCCs, the vessels that transport crude, tracked a whopping 1.46 million barrels per day of Saudi oil shipped to the U.S. in the first two weeks of April alone — four times February’s daily volume and the highest since 2014. The majority of tankers went to the Gulf Coast, with a smaller proportion going to Californian ports.
According to Saudi state oil producer Aramco’s website, the company was loading 15 tankers for its international customers on April 1 — the day a previous OPEC production cut agreement with its oil-producing allies, OPEC+, expired — supplying the tankers with a record 18.8 million barrels in a single day.
It lit up like a Christmas tree, the whole Eastern Province. All the flares just came back online.
– Samir Madani Co-founder, TankerTrackers.com
The boost in exports comes against the backdrop of one of the most dramatic periods in oil market history: Record oil output from the world’s largest oil producers juxtaposed with eviscerated demand due to worldwide coronavirus lockdowns as economic activity and global commercial transport came to a screeching halt.
Continue to article: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/17/saudi-arabias-oil-exports-to-us-skyrocketed-amid-coronavirus-lockdowns.html
