The following is the text of a news release from BIMCO:
(LONDON) — The United States government lifted its restrictive policy on crude oil exports in December 2015. In September and October 2017, increased demand from Asia and Europe has caused U.S. seaborne export of crude oil to surpass the U.S. seaborne export of oil products in terms of billion tonne miles.
This is due to U.S. crude oil being exported twice the sailing distance of U.S. oil products. In October, the seaborne exports of crude oil amounted to 46 billion tonne miles whereas the U.S. export of oil products was equivalent to 43 billion tonne miles.
Despite the U.S. seaborne exports of crude oil being half the amount of seaborne oil product exports in October 2017 (in terms of volume), it is now more important to the tanker shipping industry. This is due to the average sailing distance per exported tonne of crude oil being more than double the distance than the exported oil products.
“The increased U.S. crude oil exports during 2017 benefits the crude oil tanker shipping industry," said BIMCO’s chief shipping analyst Peter Sand. "The demand on that trade is up by 151 percent compared to last year. Not only are the volumes more than doubling, the sailing distances are increasing as well.
"U.S. crude oil exports are now more important to shipping than U.S. oil product exports. Asia and Europe are the importers demanding most U.S. crude oil in 2017, with Asia in particular being responsible for the longer sailing distances."