This Bakken Crude will be used by Refineries in the region – just part of NuStars strategy for alternate heavy crudes when others are scarce. And it exposes more refineries to crude from this new domestic source and huge field (developmnet held back by crazy environmentalist of course).
I am glad to see someone getting this US Crude/Field to market. Lot of folks are also trying & liking the Russian ESPO crude (sort heavy WTI look alike).
I was wondering what the backfill was for Maya & Venezuela & Saudi crudes that have dropped & here is what I came up with for US Refinery import crude changes :
Did quick EIA cross check on US Crude imports for 2009 top 10 & comparison to 2001 & 2010 YTD. It looks like not lot changes in top 10 but Mexico did get 2nd spot back from Saudi’s that dropped lower (looking back at 2007 overall seems Mexico imports are down by -20% which mostly came out of reduced US rates). Looks like both Kuwiat & Ecuador dropped out of top 10 but not lot change. Not shown but seems like Russia imports just missed in 11th spot (and versus 2007 are up by 98%). Venezuela is of course down but volume seems spread over lot other smaller country imports like Colombia.
Didn’t check on US domestic until news article, but think import picture tells most story I was looking at – most drop in top importers was also coming out from drop in US rates/utilization vs 2001/2007 & 2009.
Regards