WASHINGTON: US oil cargoes transiting the Panama Canal are close to a four-year high, as Asian refiners rush to import American crude in lieu of Mideast supplies strangled by the weeks-long disruption to Strait of Hormuz shipping.
US oil exports via the canal – the shortest route between the Gulf Coast and Asia –have surpassed 200,000 barrels a day, close to the most since July 2022.
This was according to data for the first half of April from maritime intelligence firm Kpler Ltd.
Even as the United States and Iran worked last Friday to hash out a deal to fully re-open Hormuz, conflicting signals about who is in control and who will regulate transits signalled uncertainty about when normal Persian Gulf trade flows might resume.
Meanwhile, ballooning wait times to enter the Panamanian waterway are prompting crude shippers to pay more than US$3mil to jump to the front of the line, according to people familiar with the matter.
For some hydrocarbon byproducts, such as liquefied petroleum gas, skipping the queue is even more expensive. — Bloomberg
