Asian Countries Moves to U.S. Crudes Amid Soaring Prices of Brent

U.S. oil is increasingly seeing high demand from Asian countries as crudes that are priced against Brent futures are making record high in price.

Major Asian countries including China are on a spree for American sour crude with delivery in November and higher demand for December.

U.S. crudes grade recently slumped to the lowest level over the course of a year and along with China recently increasing oil import quotas are support factors for the favorable demand of U.S. crudes. Amid power crisis and soaring energy prices China for the 4th time this year increased crude oil import quotas of private refiners to 14.9 million tons.

A higher spread between Brent and WTI futures accommodates to higher export of U.S. crudes. Brent on Friday surpassed $85 a barrel while WTI trading at $83.41 a barrel.

Couple of catalyst are in play on the demand surge for oil with economies easing restrictions fueling road fuel, supply chain shortages leading to higher freight activity, surging demand for oil in the power sector as economic activities gain pace and unprecedented supply deficit of fossil fuel pushing price to historic highs.

U.S. is entering winter season and together with higher domestic and overseas demand translates to steep competition for refiners. According to National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), winters in U.S. are expected to colder than last year which would put upward pressure on the demand of natural gas resulting in upward pressure on price of both natural gas and alternative to the former oil.  Refiners are already under pressure as hurricane Ida wiped away a 30 million barrel with production of some refiners only set to return next year.