US West Coast refineries to replace Iraqi heavy oil with cheaper Canadian crude

Shafaq News/ Refineries on the US West Coast are planning to replace their imports of Iraqi heavy oil with cheaper Canadian crude, as the recently expanded Trans Mountain pipeline shifts Pacific trade flows, according to Bloomberg.

California and Washington are set to import around 150,000 barrels per day of Canadian crude via tankers in June, a sevenfold increase from average volumes, preliminary data from Vortexa shows. At the same time, their imports of Iraq's Basrah Heavy crude are expected to plummet to 3,587 barrels per day from 76,000 barrels per day in May.

The Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, which began operations in May, is transporting 590,000 barrels per day of crude from Canada's oil sands to Vancouver for export. This move is expected to benefit US West Coast refineries, which would otherwise pay several dollars more per barrel for Iraqi crude.

With the rise in Canadian imports to the US West Coast, shipments of Brazil's medium-sour crude and Basrah Heavy are decreasing.

Western Canadian Select (WCS) heavy crude in Alberta is trading about $13 cheaper than US West Texas Intermediate (WTI), or roughly $67 per barrel, according to Bloomberg's benchmark pricing. Basrah Heavy trades about $5.55 cheaper than benchmark Brent, or over $80 per barrel.