"U.S. Oil Flowing Freely to China Again"

From Bloomberg via gCaptain:

It seems Asia’s biggest oil buyer can’t stay away from crude pumped in the world’s fastest-growing supplier for long.

A supertanker laden with U.S. oil is floating off China’s eastern coast, awaiting discharge at one of the Asian nation’s busiest ports. The vessel will soon be joined by more ships that will make the two-month voyage from America as long-simmering trade tensions between Washington and Beijing begin to ease.

While refiners in China shunned U.S. oil imports as the nations imposed tit-for-tat tariffs in an escalating trade war, buying interest has resurfaced on optimism that the world’s top-two economies are nearing a resolution to their dispute. With geopolitical turmoil disrupting supply from Iran to Venezuela, buyers are feeling more assured the purchases won’t break government regulations, according to refinery officials and traders in Asia.

Unipec, the trading arm of state-owned refining giant Sinopec, provisionally chartered the Coswisdom Lake to pick up crude from the U.S. Gulf Coast on May 20 for delivery to China, shipping fixtures show. The tanker, with capacity of two million barrels, is just one of many that are being sought by companies such as Occidental Petroleum Corp, Mercuria Energy Group, Sinochem Group and Equinor ASA for the same journey....MORE