USWC jet reaches all-time high on South Korea supply crunch, refinery disruptions

US West Coast jet premiums rose to an all-time high April 16 as imports from South Korea dwindled, prompting Jones Act waiver cargoes from the US Gulf Coast and airplane tankering amid local refinery disruptions.

Platts assessed the US West Coast jet benchmark Los Angeles pipeline at NYMEX May ULSD plus $1.00/gal April 16, up 10.00 cents/gal day over day and the highest in the S&P Global Energy database from January 1987.

On an outright basis, prices rose to $4.8329/gal April 16, eclipsing the previous record set on March 20 of $4.8084/gal.

"There is a lack of jet fuel for export out of South Korea, so the USWC prices are coming into line with the rest of the world," a US jet trader said April 16. "No imports and exports to Australia and import-dependent US locations."

South Korea accounted for over 82% of jet imports to the USWC last year, by far the most at over 109,000 b/d, according to S&P Global Commodities at Sea data. The next-highest suppliers were China and Japan, at roughly 10,000 b/d and 6,000 b/d, respectively.

USWC imports declined 45,000 b/d to 59,000 b/d in the week to April 10, the US Energy Information Administration said April 15.

"Airlines are tankering fuel out of low-price airports to high-price airports," the first US jet trader said April 16.

The USWC import arbitrage from South Korea was measured shut by $21.10/barrel April 16, according to the latest Platts Refined Product arbFlow report.

Stocks in California fell to a 28-month low of 2.668 million barrels last week, the California Energy Commission said April 16. That is down by 449,000 barrels from the week prior and the lowest inventory level since Nov. 11, 2023, when the CEC measured 2.606 million barrels.

As its refineries shut down, California has been moving toward a refined-product import model, similar to the one in place on the US Atlantic Coast since 2012-13, when a swath of USAC refineries closed.

Since October 2025, with the closure of two refineries representing 18% of the state's refining capacity, it has had to rethink its conventional fuel supply sources and has looked to Asia to complete its supply roster.

"Refineries have been closing recently, and the ones that are currently operating have been having hiccups," a second US jet trader said April 16. "USWC inventories are drawing, and it's compounding."

PBF Energy reported to local regulators that it planned about 12 hours of flaring at its Torrance, California, refinery, according to a filing April 15 with the South Coast Air Quality Management.

Chevron resumed on-spec jet fuel and high-octane gasoline production from its El Segundo, California, refinery as its Isomax unit returned to service last month from a fire in October, the company said in a statement March 19.

"Jet may be up because of the short Asia-Pacific market generally," a spokesperson for Chevron said April 14. "It's crazy out there as supply chains adapt to the Hormuz situation. But in any event, we don't discuss day-to-day operations, and El Segundo continues to supply customers in the region."

USWC supply could draw support from the Jones Act waiver as rare shipments from the USGC surfaced this month. The 60-day waiver issued March 18 lifts the restriction that requires all ships moving goods between US ports to be US-built, US-owned and US-crewed.

The Medium Range tanker STI Mystery loaded 323,000 barrels of distillates at the Port of South Louisiana April 1, passed through the Panama Canal and was signaling Nikiski, Alaska, for an estimated arrival of April 26, according to CAS.

The Medium Range Torm Daphne tanker loaded at Houston April 5 and was expected to follow a similar voyage through the Panama Canal to the USWC, CAS data showed.