(Reuters) – BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell each have shipped cargoes of Canadian crude oil out of the Texas coast this month, according to industry firm ClipperData, highlighting a once-rare journey that is expected to become more common.
The two Aframax tankers loaded from Enterprise Products Partners LP’s export terminal in Freeport, Texas, according to the firm, which tracks crude tanker movements. They are currently en route to Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and Spain, data show.
Canadian crude reaches the terminal via Enbridge Inc’s 600,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) Illinois-to-Cushing, Oklahoma, Flanagan South pipeline, where it loads into the 850,000-bpd Seaway pipeline system, which Enbridge co-owns with operator Enterprise. Flanagan and the new 450,000-bpd Seaway Twin started up in December and have been ramping up. Enbridge has a license to re-export Canadian crude.
ClipperData said that on April 10, BP’s 600,000-barrel shipment of Canadian light sour blend, loaded on the Catalan Sea, left the Freeport terminal bound for Rotterdam. On Monday the vessel was southeast of the eastern tip of Canada, heading northwest toward western Europe.
On April 13 the Zuma left the same Freeport terminal loaded with Shell’s 523,000-barrel shipment of Western Canadian Select headed for Spain, they said. On Monday that vessel was northeast of Hispaniola, heading northeast toward the Iberian peninsula.
Neither vessel stopped at a lightering zone in the Gulf of Mexico, the firm said.
(Reporting by Kristen Hays; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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