Rare shipment of US oil heads to SA Glencore refinery

Oil tanker Sonangol Porto Amboim is docked at the South Texas Gateway terminal in Ingleside, Texas, US. 2023. Source: Reuters/Arathy Somasekhar

US oil exports this year hit a record 4.5 million barrels per day as competitive pricing for US grades and China's reopening after Covid-19 have fueled global demand for oil.

Tanker Sonangol Porto Amboim, carrying light sweet oil, left Corpus Christi, Texas, on 16 May for Saldanha Bay, according to ship tracking information from Refinitiv Eikon and energy data provider Kpler.

South Africa gets most of its oil from West and Central Africa as well as Saudi Arabia, according to Kpler data. But competitive pricing for US crude and changes to oil flows since Russia's invasion of Ukraine have opened new markets. The last shipment of US oil went to South Africa in May 2021, US customs data showed.

Teck rejects Glencore's proposal for a merger

4 Apr 2023

Glencore refinery producing at planned capacity

The 850,000 barrel-cargo of West Texas Light was purchased by Swiss-commodities trader Glencore, a person familiar with the matter said.

Glencore's majority-owned Astron Energy restarted production at its 100,000 barrel-per-day Cape Town refinery nearly three years after a deadly explosion shuttered operations and killed two workers.

Glencore declined to comment on the shipment. Astron confirmed that the refinery restarted as part of a phased process and was producing at its planned capacity.

Astron, which has the second-largest retail fuel network in southern Africa, receives its oil from tankers discharging in Saldanha Bay and transports the oil to the Cape Town refinery via pipeline, according to the refiner's website.