The White House extended its Jones Act waiver by 90 days, keeping foreign-flagged tankers eligible to move crude, fuels and fertilizer between U.S. ports through mid-August.
The waiver was on track to expire on May 17.
The waiver still covers 659 product categories, preserving access to foreign shipping at a moment when U.S. coastal transport capacity is tight and roughly 13 million barrels per day of crude and products remain disrupted globally due to the Iran war.
Notably, Gulf Coast crude will now clear faster by moving more easily to East Coast refiners.
Cargoes are already moving under the waiver. Phillips 66 has already shipped Bakken crude from Beaumont to the 185,000-barrel-per-day Trainer refinery in Pennsylvania aboard a Malta-flagged tanker, becoming the first company to move domestic crude under the waiver. The extension gives refiners a wider booking window for July and August cargoes.
The Jones Act normally requires U.S.-built, U.S.-flagged and U.S.-crewed ships for domestic waterborne trade. That sharply limits tanker availability for Gulf Coast crude and fuel shipments.
The Trump Administration issued the original waiver in March, and has since paired that with fuel-spec waivers and sanctions relief of some Russian crude flows, all aimed at keeping physical barrels moving.
“The Trump administration has taken several actions to mitigate short-term disruptions to the energy markets, and this extension will help ensure vital energy products, industrial materials and agricultural necessities are maintained,” White House Spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said on Friday.
There is a political fight around the waiver. There is also a shipping reality: the U.S. does not have enough Jones Act tonnage to absorb a supply shock of this scale.
The extension runs into peak summer fuel demand, when refiners are positioning inventories and booking waterborne crude.
So far, few domestic crude cargoes have moved under the waiver.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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