Canadian oil exports from new pipeline shift to US from Asia

Canadian crude exports from the recently expanded Trans Mountain pipeline are shifting to the US from Asia, showing how the major project’s effect on global oil markets remains in flux. 

Exports by tanker to the Far East in July fell 45% from a month earlier to 107,000 barrels a day, while shipments to the US West Coast — mostly to California — more than tripled to 240,000 barrels a day, Vortexa ship-tracking data show. Shipments to China, the biggest Asian buyer, fell by about 36% to 91,400 barrels a day. 

The decline marks a change after Asia — largely China and India — became the top destination for Canadian crude shipped off the newly expanded Trans Mountain pipeline, which started full service in June. In its first month, exports across the Pacific were more than double shipments to the US West Coast. 

The Trans Mountain expansion was built partly to lessen Canada’s almost total dependence on the US market, particularly on refiners in the Midwest and Gulf Coast. But many observers, including Wood Mackenzie Ltd., expected more exports to flow to US refiners because Canada’s barrels would have trouble competing with a flood of Russian crude in Asian markets.

To be sure, the volume sent to Asia in July may increase because some tankers en route to California are heading to an area off the coast where they transfer oil onto larger tankers bound for more distant destinations. In addition, one very-large crude carrier holding Canadian crude lists Los Angeles as its destination, but is floating off the Southern California coast and may eventually head west to Asia.