American oil flows to China

The ongoing U.S.-China trade dispute stopped a surge in American oil exports to the Middle Kingdom, but as Washington and Beijing inch toward a deal, a trickle of U.S. crude appears to be making its way to Chinese shores. The development comes as U.S. and Chinese negotiators recently wrapped up talks that prevented tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars in goods from rising sharply on March 1. The dispute has disrupted once robust trade in energy products like crude oil and liquefied natural gas between the world’s two biggest economies.

China emerged as a major buyer of U.S. crude after President Barack Obama and Congress lifted the 40-year ban on exporting crude oil in 2015. During some months last year, China surpassed Canada as the top importer of American oil. Beijing has declined to slap an import tax on U.S. crude in retaliation against the Trump administration’s tariffs on Chinese goods. But Chinese buyers nevertheless stopped purchasing American supplies last year as the trade dispute with Washington escalated.

After the long pause in trade, China recently offloaded its first shipment of U.S. crude oil this year, although in a roundabout way. About 468,000 barrels of U.S.-origin crude oil was pulled from storage at Yeosu, South Korea, and shipped to China, according to tanker-tracking firm ClipperData. Earlier this month, Genscape forecast a ship called The Manifa would deliver U.S. crude to China by mid-February, but it is now scheduled to discharge in South Korea, according to both ClipperData and Genscape. Genscape flagged three other ships bound for Singapore as potentially delivering American oil to China. ClipperData says one offloaded in South Korea, while two others are about to discharge in Korea or Taiwan. One other vessel, the Jag Lakshya, delivered Canadian crude loaded in the United States to China this month.

US oil is trickling back into China after export boom goes bust, CNBC, Feb 27