The ongoing port congestion has caused a significant delay on the deliveries of US crude oil to China’s independent refiners, an industry survey showed. According to the survey, these refiners received not even a single barrel of US crude oil in June. As of Friday, four cargoes or about 631,000 tons of US crudes were waiting in a long queue to be discharged since early June.
The stranded cargoes include ZPC’s 262,000 tons of light sweet WTI crude and 369,000 tons of Alaskan North Slope crude purchased by ZPC, Luqing Petrochemical, and trading company MME. Independent refiners have led China’s purchases of US crudes in 2020, after being halted amid the US-China trade war. In May, the private refiners imported 345,000 tons of various US crude grades such as WTI Midland, Mars Blend, and ANS.
Low prices also encouraged these refiners to purchase rare cheap grades for feedstock testing in June. Last month, this sector imported a total of 56 crude grades, compared to 30-40 previously. Those included new grades included Canada’s Hibernia, Denmark’s DFC, Malaysia’s Kikeh, and Nigeria’s Bonga.
