A cargo of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) was delivered to California this month for the first time, according to ship tracking service Kpler.
The shipment reflects changing trade flows after the Iran war disrupted Middle Eastern crude supplies. California imported about 230,000 barrels per day from the Middle East last year.
The supertanker unloaded SPR crude to two smaller ships that delivered the cargoes to refineries in California, Kpler said.
Approximately 460,000 barrels of Bayou Choctaw Sweet crude were sent to Chevron’s (NYSE:CVX) Richmond refinery, while another 50,000 barrels were delivered to Chevron’s El Segundo refinery, according to bills of lading.
Tanker Red Moon loaded nearly 980,000 barrels of Bayou Choctaw Sweet in Louisiana and discharged the cargo at the Atlantic Terminal on the east coast of Panama in early May. Chevron was listed as the seller.
A 131 km pipeline transports crude from the east coast to the Pacific Terminal on the west coast of Panama.
Supertanker Pascagoula Voyager, chartered by Chevron, loaded about 2 million barrels of crude at the Pacific Terminal and traveled to the U.S. West Coast. The vessel was co-loaded with Guyana’s Unity Gold crude oil.
