India has shipped its first-ever cargo of jet fuel bound for the U.S. West Coast for Chevron amid favorable arbitrage economics and increased import demand following a fire at the supermajor’s refinery in the Los Angeles area in October.
The Hafnia Kallang oil product tanker departed at the end of October from the Indian port of Sikka, from where India’s industrial conglomerate Reliance Industries ships cargoes from its huge Jamnagar refinery, shipping data on Marine Traffic show. Currently the Singapore-flagged Hafnia Kallang is near the Japanese coast bound for the Los Angeles port and expected to arrive in the first week of December.
This is the first-ever jet fuel cargo India has shipped to the U.S. West Coast, traders told Reuters.
Fuel production on the West Coast has been reduced since early October when a fire at Chevron’s 280,000-barrels-per-day El Segundo refinery in the Los Angeles area forced the U.S. supermajor to halt output at some units for repairs.
Chevron is working to restart the units shut down after the fire at El Segundo, but fuel supply in the area and in California has tightened as a result of the incident.
The El Segundo Refinery, which began operations in 1911, is one of the few that oil majors aren’t closing due to California’s assault on the oil and gas sector in recent years.
Between Phillips 66’s LA facility to close by the end of 2025 and Valero’s Benicia refinery, scheduled to close in 2026, the state is set to lose roughly 17% of its refining capacity—and that’s likely to drive the high gasoline prices even higher.
Fuel supply on the U.S. West Coast is likely to remain tighter than usual until all units at El Segundo return online.
“Chevron remains focused on supplying its customers around the world, including those supplied by the El Segundo refinery, and may utilize local or imported product to do so,” the supermajor said in a statement to Reuters.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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