Contradictions: The US is breaking the record in Russian diesel imports
Despite the Ukrainian conflict, the US is increasingly importing a very important raw material: diesel fuel. Russian diesel exports to the United States hit a three-year high last month as winter weather resulted in increased demand for heating and power generation in the Northeast.
Bloomberg reported that around 1.55 million barrels of diesel are currently traveling from Russia to the United States, which is expected to arrive by the end of this month, according to Vortexa data.
The surge in Russian diesel deliveries comes as fuel inventories on the east coast have fallen to an eight-year low while demand is at its highest since 2018. At the same time, Bloomberg noted, refining capacity on the east coast also it declined due to low commercial margins and an explosion that took a refinery out of use. .
Russian fuel also appears to have few alternatives for the northeastern United States right now: Canada closed a refinery in the eastern part of the country at the start of the pandemic, while Europe, another fuel supplier to the states United, it is too busy its energy problems to be able to save a few million barrels of diesel, according to the Reuters report.
The strength of US oil demand is evident in the latest moves in the West Texas Intermediate: the local benchmark exceeded $ 92 a barrel this week for the first time since 2014. The immediate reason for this latest increase is concern that a Another cold spell in Texas could hit production once again, which would contribute to the already limited global supply of oil.
At the same time, winter is a seasonal period of higher demand for diesel, also due to its use for heating. The production shortages put the US in the hands of Russia: if the export were to stop there would be no possibility to import it from Europe and there are not many other alternatives. Comfort has been exchanged for security. Without diesel fuel trucks and ships stop and the transport of goods becomes impossible. In the end, the lazy West has tied hands and feet to Moscow, which is waiting to take advantage of it.
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The article Contradictions: the US is making the record in imports of diesel from Russia comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/contraddizioni-gli-usa-stanno-facendo-il-record-in-importazioni-di-diesel-dalla-russia/ on Fri, 04 Feb 2022 20:36:22 +0000.