Vessels with U.S. Oil en voyage to Asia; as OPEC measures extending cuts

TOP 5 events in Today’s Market:

• More Trump drama as White House turmoil deepens
• Dollar struggles to recover from worst day in almost a year
• Global stocks extend slump amid Trump jitters
• Oil slides as investors weigh U.S. drilling, extended OPEC cuts
• British pound rises above $1.30 for first time in 8 months

For further info on these subjects: www.investing.com

Cargoes:

According to current news, nearly 8 tankers are now en voyage from the U.S. to Asia. The one of them is carrying a cargo of Southern Green Canyon oil. Which japanese refiner Cosmo Energy bought. The other carries Alaskan North Slope cargo which is expected to come to Asia in about eight months.

The United States drillers are using the favorable prices to sell their Oil and that way they are strongly affecting the market. It is making OPEC less powerful to impact the global Oil market. The next week is crucial for Oil prices and movements in Oil market, because OPEC is going to meet in Vienna on May the 25th.

The market members, and all the OPEC allies are trying to leave the oil output at a current level, but the U.S. drilling is constantly affecting all the market happenings. Their ”relatively cheap” prices have buoyed exports going to Asia.

The forecasts for further U.S. Oil output:

U.S. Oil is expected to gain a quantity of 1000000 bpd, with most of it going straight to Asia. U.S. crude oil exports already came to a level of 1.09 million bpd. Observing the recent drilling (period of past few months) those are the levels highest on record according to U.S. government data. In case these amounts remain elevated, it can happen that they come over the 1.2 million bpd. 1.2 million was the February’s amount.

“We expect that momentum to continue when Dakota Access Pipeline opens, and as more Permian production hits Corpus Christi docks.”  (Sandy Fielden, director of oil and products research at Morningstar said) (Reuters)

Based on EIA info, United States Oil production rose for 10%. Which shows that levels of 9.3 million bpd are serious levels, and that if the production goes further, OPEC’s role in the global market will be really questioned.

Tempting Arbitrage:

Wednesday(17.05.) was the day when U.S. crude touched a 6-week high. It Immediately affected the traffic going to Asia; It shows as an possible extension of U.S. exports finding their way to Asian customers.

– “Early May spot prices showed both Brent and Dubai trading at around a $3 per barrel premium to Brent and WTI Cushing, which is an open window,” said Fielden. (Reuters)

Bahamas-flagged Suezmax is carrying Alaskan North Slope crude oil to Asia. This is based on the Vessel tracking data. Half of this crude is sold, half is unsold. (Reuters)

In the meantime, the Cosmo Energy has an Aframax vessel Almi Star with 300,000 barrels of Southern Green Canyon crude and Domestic Sweet Blend outside of Houston. Later it is picking up for further 300,000 barrels of Maya crude at Dos Bocas, Mexico.

This ship will go through the Panama Canal. Afterwards it will transfer crude to a larger Suezmax vessel loaded with 400,000 barrels of Mexican Maya crude for a voyage to Asia.

When asked to comment on this subject, The Suezmax P66 refused to comment.  Actually they did not answer the e-mail on this, while the Cosmo Energy refused to comment.