US Crude Oil Exports to Europe Have Risen by 52.2% So Far This Year

The rerouting of seaborne crude oil trade is in full swing, as evidenced by the fact that the EU is now the destination of one third of total US crude oil exports.

In its latest weekly report, shipbroker Banchero Costa said that “2021 was a very negative year for crude oil trade. Total loadings in the whole 12 months of 2021 were down -4.4% y-o-y to 1,887 mln tonnes, excluding all cabotage trade, according to vessels tracking data from Refinitiv. However, things have turned around quite spectacularly in 2022, despite the surging oil prices and risks of economic recession. In the first 9 months of 2022, global crude oil loadings were up +8.9% y-o-y at 1,517.1 mln tonnes, well above the 1,393.2 mln tonnes in Jan-Sep 2021, but slightly below the 1,564.9 mln tonnes in the same period of 2019”.

According to the shipbroker, “exports from Saudi Arabia are up +19.4% y-o-y to 268.1 mln tonnes in Jan-Sep 2022, above pre-Covid levels. Seaborne shipments from other AG countries are also up by +10.5% y-o-y to 384.0 mln tonnes in the same period, but still below pre-Covid levels. Exports from Russia have also increased by +14.5% y-o-y to 164.2 mln tonnes, slightly below the 168.8 mln t in the same period of 2019. The Unites States significantly boosted their crude oil production and exports since the shale “revolution”. Exports from the USA sharply increased in recent years, to the point that it is now the fourth largest exporter in the world, after Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Russia”.

Banchero Costa added that “in the full year 2021, USA ports accounted for 7.1% of global crude oil loadings (excluding cabotage). About 57 percent of international crude exports from the USA are loaded in Corpus Christi, about 16 percent from Galveston, about 9 percent from Houston, about 5 percent from LOOP, about 3 percent from Bayport, about 3 percent from Beaumont. Given persisting infrastructure limitations, only about 39 percent of crude oil volumes loaded at USA ports are loaded on VLCCs. Most VLCC cargoes are loaded in Corpus Christi, Galveston and LOOP. About 21 percent of volumes are loaded on Suezmaxes, and as much as 38 percent is loaded on Aframaxes”.

“The USA is one of the few exporters which managed to increase shipment volumes in 2020, but things turned sour in 2021. In the 12 months of 2020, the USA managed to ship 137.8 mln tonnes of crude oil, up by +7.1% year-on-year. However in 2021 the USA exported just 134.3 mln t, down -2.5% y-o-y. In the first 9 months of 2022, seaborne crude oil exports from the USA surged to 120.1 mln tonnes (excluding cabotage), up by +24.2% yo-y from the 96.7 mln t in the same period of 2021 and an all time record. In the first quarter of 2022, the USA exported 37.6 mln tonnes, which represented an increase of +22.6% yo-y from the 30.7 mln t of 1Q 2021”, the shipbroker said.

Banchero Costa also noted that “the second quarter of 2022 saw a further increase to 39.4 mln t, which was up +13.1% y-o-y from 2Q 2021. The third quarter of 2021 saw volumes surging further to 43.0 mln tonnes shipped from the USA, which was up 38.1% y-o-y from 3Q 2021 and by far the best quarter ever. In terms of destinations for the shipments, it is quite diversified, with about 45% to Asia, 42% to Europe, and the rest to the Americas. Direction Europe, about 38.3 mln tonnes (32 percent of the total) were shipped from the USA to the European Union in the first 9 months of 2022, whilst about 12.0 mln tonnes (10.0 percent of the total) went to the United Kingdom. Specifically, 8.9 mln tonnes were shipped in Jan-Sep 2022 to the Netherlands, 6.1 mln t to Italy, 6.0 mln t to Spain, 5.7 mln t to France, 4.6 mln t to Germany, 1.7 mln to Denmark”.

“Overall exports from the USA to the European Union increased by +52.2% y-o-y in the first 9 months of 2022, whilst to the United Kingdom increased by +47.0% y-o-y. Direction Asia, about 14.1 mln tonnes were shipped from the USA to South Korea in the first 9 months of 2022 (12 percent of the USA’s total), an increase of +6.2% y-o-y. Exports from the USA to India declined by -28.3% y-o-y in the first 9 months of 2022 to 9.7 mln tonnes. Volumes to Singapore surged by +227% y-o-y to 9.0 mln t from just 2.8 mln t in the same period of last year. To Mainland China volumes increased by +27.5% y-o-y to 8.7 mln tonnes, and to Japan by +65.2% y-o-y to 1.1 mln t.
Nikos Roussanoglou, Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide