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US Sends Crude to Asia for First Time Since 2022- Reuters Analysis

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A US Strategic Petroleum Reserve cargo is sailing to the Philippines, marking the first such American oil shipment to Asia since November 2022, according to a Reuters' analysis on Tuesday citing ship-tracking data.

The deployment comes as a direct response to severe structural dislocations in Asian energy grids, which typically rely on the Strait of Hormuz for roughly 80% of their total petroleum imports.

With the vital chokepoint heavily restricted for over three months due to the ongoing US-Iran conflict, a severe deficit of Middle Eastern barrels has driven spot premiums to record highs, forcing regional refiners to look across the Atlantic to avoid catastrophic supply shortfalls.

According to maritime intelligence data from Kpler, the transaction is being executed via the Greek-flagged Very Large Crude Carrier Arosa, which was chartered by multinational energy major Shell (SHEL), the report noted.

The vessel loaded about 616,000 barrels of domestic sour crude from the Bryan Mound SPR facility in Texas during early May, alongside a co-loaded commercial batch of 700,000 barrels of the deepwater US sour grade, Thunder Horse.

The combined 1.3-million-barrel hardware layout is scheduled to arrive at the Bataan refining hub in the Philippines in early July, breaking a multi-year gap since the Southeast Asian nation last imported a US crude barrel in February 2020, the report said.

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