Colombia leads Thunder Horse to waterborne market

OREANDA-NEWS. October 03, 2016. Colombia has imported three cargoes of light sour Thunder Horse, or 1.5mn bl, in the past month — the first exports of the US crude. Ecopetrol has taken the shipments to its new 165,000 b/d Cartagena refinery.

Two of the cargoes were supplied by BP, shipping fixtures show. Ecopetrol signed a one-year deal with BP this year to identify the optimum domestic and foreign crude mix to process at the refinery, which ramped up to capacity in July.

The firm took a cargo of US Bonito Sour in May — Colombia's first and only US crude import until the Thunder Horse shipments began in August. Cartagena runs a base slate of about 70pc domestic crude, supplemented by 30pc imports.