The imported fuel oil of the US Bay Coast reaches 2.5 years in the middle of Venezuela’s sanctions, Russia
Imports of fuel oil to the US Bay coast jumped to the highest two and a half years in September, pushed by a cargo leap from the Middle East, when the refiners looked for alternatives to thin out the supply of Venezuela’s crude oil, according to the data tracking the initial ship, analyst and refinery source.
The Bay of Bay Coastal Penyam Increases the import of fuel oil to refill the widening gap left by a decrease in heavy crude oil supply, especially from the Venezuela approved by the US.
Meanwhile, domestic fuel oil stock has declined after the US approved by Russia and Russian oil products after the Ukraine invasion of 2022, cutting the main fuel oil supplier and forcing college to find alternative barrels.
Imports of fuel oil to Teluk As Beach, home for more than 55% of the total US purification capacity, has increased since July and is on the path to reach 541,000 barrels per day last month, marking the highest since February 2023, according to the KPler.
In August and September, the import of fuel oil from the Gulf countries reached the highest record, supported by the volume of Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait, per KPler.
Sending Iraq’s high sulfur fuel oil to Teluk As Beach in the Suezmax tanker has been economically feasible since the beginning of July, according to the owner of Sparta Hoa Nguyen’s commodity, referring to a tanker who can send up to one million barrels.
The end of the power plant in the Middle East has also released more high -residue fuel oil barrels to meet strong demand at Teluk As Beach, Nguyen added.
“In short, there is more availability of high sulfur residues today, which is scattered by the US purification system and which will help improve diesel results there,” Nguyen said.
Decreased raw supply available from Venezuela and more fuel oil available from the Middle East, coupled with strong product margins has caused several Gulf Coast US refiners to run more fuel oil in recent months, according to refinery sources.
The bay beach refinery is designed to process heavy and rough crude oil quality, typical of Latin American values. When the inventory tightens, the drainage can spin to fuel oil, the secondary unit can be processed into higher products such as gasoline and diesel.
Rough imports to the purification center have declined since July, fell 143,000 BPD that month to only 880,000 BPD in September, according to the initial KPler data, the lowest since November 2022.
US crude oil imports from Venezuela fell to 6,000 BPD in July, according to the administration of energy information, after the cancellation of the South American state cargo to US producer Chevron CVX, ahead of the deadline set by the Trump administration to end the oil transaction.
Chevron’s authorization was restored by restrictions at the end of July but the volume had not recovered, with a weekly US import of only 49,000 BPD last week, compared to the highest 2025 416,000 BPD in January, per EIA data.
“This has made the US seized the bay of valuable raw supply, forcing them to switch to residual imports,” said Roslan Khasawneh, senior oil analyst at the KPler.
Fuel oil shares of US residue fell 487,000 barrels last week to 20.63 million barrels, compared to 29.2 million in the same week in 2021, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to EIA data.
Source: Reuters
