By Adewale Sanyaolu
Europe’s imports of diesel and gasoil from the United States is on track to reach a two-year high this month, data from Vortexa shows.
Last December, Europe’s U.S. loadings for diesel and gasoil reached 660,000t, according to Vortexa data cited by Argus.
It was the highest amount headed to Europe in any month since September 2020—and a strikingly high 70 per cent increase over cargos loaded in November. The rush for Europe to stock up on diesel and gasoil comes just a couple of months ahead of the European Union’s full ban on crude oil products set to begin on February 5.
For the United States, which is already battling falling diesel supplies that are 14 per cent below their five-year average, the increasing European imports have collided with refinery outages over the Christmas holidays due to cold weather, further depressing U.S. distillate and gasoline inventories. Phillips 66 predicted earlier this week that the gasoline and diesel markets will be tight this summer, with refiners running at or near full capacity for months.
Europe has also looked to the UAE for additional diesel imports. Russia is gearing up to increase its diesel shipments this month before the EU’s ban kicks in, with fuel shipments from Russian ports set to reach 2.68 million tonnes in January—an 8 per cent increase over last month and the highest rate since January 2020, Bloomberg reported last month. Those export figures only include pipeline and rail shipments.
In the first ten days of December, about half of Europe’s diesel imports came from Russian shipping facilities, highlighting the still-strong reliance that Europe has on Russian diesel as recently as a month ago. Europe was also importing a healthy amount of diesel from the Middle East and Asia.