Market Currents: Seasonal maintenance means lower oil imports
Friday October 21, 2016
1) Yesterday we discussed how the U.S. West coast has seen imports drop off considerably this month, led by weakness in deliveries of Saudi crude. We have seen a similar case of import weakness on the Gulf coast of late, but in this case it has been driven by a lack of Colombian receipts.
Our ClipperData show Colombian imports to the U.S. Gulf have averaged 260,000 barrels per day so far this year. October’s current pace is at a much lesser 77,000 bpd, with all grades absent except for Castilla blend:
2) Heavy sour Castilla blend crude has made its way to 15 different refineries and terminals on the U.S. Gulf coast this year (hark, home to nearly half of all U.S. refinery capacity), delivering to about half of these on average each month so far through Septembe...