September crude imports at LOOP up 10% from average following Harvey: In The LOOP

The Louisiana Offshore Oil Port continues to experience a surge in crude oil imports more than two weeks after Hurricane Harvey hit the Texas Gulf Coast and prevented ports in that state from receiving crude for days.

The LOOP oil terminal has received 4.1 million barrels of crude in September through Sunday, or about 410,000 b/d, according to Platts Analytics and the latest US Customs data available. That is the highest volume of crude imported into LOOP over the first 10 days of a month since May. LOOP typically receives about 370,000 b/d of crude through the first decade of the month, Platts data shows.

By comparison, the three Texas ports to have received crude in September so far -- Houston, Corpus Christi and Texas City -- have taken in 4.3 million barrels, or just 200,000 barrels more than LOOP alone.

Valero and ExxonMobil each accounted for 1.6 million barrels of the LOOP total in September while Marathon imported 550,000 barrels and an as-yet-unknown consignee brought in a further 400,000 barrels.

Harvey's disruption appears to have led to an increase in sweet grades into LOOP as well. LOOP customers typically focus on sour crude imports. However, since Harvey made landfall, 544,000 barrels of Nigerian Bonga was imported August 28 on the tanker SKS Spey while 400,000 barrels of Bonga was imported on the same tanker September 6. Prior to late August, no West Africa crude had been imported into LOOP since January.

The cost to store crude at LOOP also has increased. LOOP sells the right to store a blend called LOOP Sour on a monthly basis. On Friday, 245 capacity allocation contracts, or CACs, representing 245,000 barrels, were cleared on CME for October storage at 20 cents/b. That is 5 cents/b more than the price for September storage, based on data published by Matrix Markets, which hosts the auction on behalf of LOOP.

The 'In the LOOP' Americas crude oil wrap runs each Monday in Crude Oil Marketwire, North American Crude and Products Scan and on the Platts Global Alert. You can read the FAQ: USGC LOOP Sour crude here and find the full special report LOOP Sour Crude: A benchmark for the future here.