A shipment of US oil is heading to South Africa for the first time in two years and is destined for a Cape Town refinery owned by Glencore which resumed operations after an explosion shut it down in 2020, the data shows vessel tracking and a source.

U.S. oil exports hit a record high of 4.5 million barrels a day this year as competitive U.S. product prices and China’s reopening after the COVID-19 crisis fueled global oil demand.

The Sonangol Porto Amboim tanker, which carries light sweet oil, departed Corpus Christi, Texas on May 16 bound for Saldanha Bay on the west coast of South Africa, according to vessel tracking information provided by Refinitiv Eikon and energy data provider Kpler.

South Africa gets most of its oil from West and Central Africa as well as Saudi Arabia, according to Kpler data. But competitive US crude prices and changes in oil flows since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have opened up new markets. The last shipment of US oil was shipped to South Africa in May 2021, according to US Customs data.

The 850,000-barrel shipment of West Texas Light was bought by Swiss commodities trader Glencore, a person familiar with the matter said.

Astron Energy, majority-owned by Glencore, has restarted production at its Cape Town refinery, which produces 100,000 barrels a day, nearly three years after a deadly explosion halted operations and killed two workers.

Glencore declined to comment on the shipment. Astron confirmed that the refinery had restarted in a phased process and was producing at planned capacity.

Astron, which has the second largest fuel retail network in southern Africa, receives its oil from tankers unloading at Saldanha Bay and transports it by pipeline to the refinery in Cape Town, according to the refiner’s website.
Source: Reuters