Growing oil glut spurs Asian refiners to offer cargoes to the US
Published Tue, Jun 30, 2026 · 02:10 PM
[SINGAPORE] Oil output from Persian Gulf nations is ramping up so quickly as the Strait of Hormuz reopens that Asian refiners, already adequately supplied, are pushing some crude to destinations as far afield as California.
While Asia is typically the biggest taker of Middle Eastern crudes, refiners have been inundated as the interim US-Iran peace deal allows the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and others to restore production, while top importer China has remained on the sidelines. As a result, some processors are now offering cargoes west, according to traders familiar with the matter.
UAE grades are being marketed to places as distant as the US West Coast, said the traders, asking not to be named as they are not authorised to speak to the media. That part of the US hasn’t imported crude from the gulf state since late last year, according to Kpler. Elsewhere, similar grades are being offered in Hawaii, they said, potentially the first Middle Eastern oil to head there since 2018 if a deal goes through.
The oil market is in a state of flux, as the initial wave of acute tightness that followed the outbreak of the war gives way to a potential glut. With commercial traffic via Hormuz picking up, Middle Eastern producers are racing to bring idled output back online, unleashing a wave of oil for traditional Asian customers who had found workarounds during the crisis, in part by taking more US barrels.
“Asian refineries are already well supplied till August, and the prompt barrels released from the Strait of Hormuz simply pushes the balances into an overhang, without China picking up on demand,” said June Goh, senior oil market analyst from Sparta Commodities. Asia’s surplus is now even making it economical to sell Middle East oil to western destinations, she added.
Such rare trades may be viable as price differentials have shifted, while US stockpiles dwindled. In the Middle East, prices collapsed in recent weeks, with many varieties now trading at discounts to the regional Dubai benchmark.
At the same time, US inventories have sunk, pushing local prices higher. Stockpiles at the Cushing, Oklahoma hub – the delivery point for West Texas Intermediate futures – have hit the lowest since 2014. Elsewhere, US West Coast stockpiles, including Hawaii, are at the smallest since 2004.
Europe and the US did import some Persian Gulf crude in peacetime, but the amounts fell during the war as Asian users paid up for whatever supply was left coming out of the region.
The US-to-Asia trade is also slowing. One South Korean refiner, GS Caltex, purchased no US crude over the June trading cycle, for supplies meant to load next month, traders said. That’s as WTI was more expensive than competing grades like Abu Dhabi’s Murban on a delivered basis, they said.
Total sales of July-loading US supplies to Asia were 800,000 to 900,000 barrels a day, according to estimates from traders with knowledge of the flows. That would be a drop of more than half from June, and take levels to the lowest in about a year, according to Kpler data.
UAE’s state producer Abu Dhabi National Oil declined to comment. Separately, GS Caltex did not respond to a request for comment. BLOOMBERG
