Colombia-to-US imports swing with rebel attacks

OREANDA-NEWS. September 11, 2015. US crude imports from Colombia increased by 7.65pc last week following the restart of a major oil pipeline in Colombia, but levels are expected to drop again soon.

The US imported 408,000 b/d of Colombian oil during the week ended 4 September, up from 379,000 b/d the week prior, according to preliminary weekly data by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Colombia's state-controlled Ecopetrol restarted its 220,000 b/d Ca?o Limon-Cove?as crude pipeline on 26 August after a near 70-day outage triggered by Colombian rebel attacks. The pipeline pumps 29.5° API crude from US firm Occidental Petroleum's Ca?o Limon and other oil fields through to the country's main export terminal, Cove?as.

Ecopetrol had declared a force majeure on at least five scheduled crude shipments during the outage and was struggling to immediately resume normal operations.

The four-week moving average of US crude imports from Colombia decreased by about 9.8pc, from 397,000 b/d the week ending 28 August to 358,000 b/d during the week ended 4 September, while Colombian exports were still recovering from the last force majeure.

Fresh bombings by Colombia's second largest rebel group, ELN, again knocked Ca?o Limon-Cove?as out of service on 6 September, which should once again cut into Colombian exports.

The spike in rebel attacks has caused Colombia's oil output to fall below 1mn b/d for the second month in a row. Crude flows in August averaged 966,000 b/d, up 2.2pc from 945,000 b/d in July, but down 3.3pc from 999,000 b/d the year before, the energy ministry said 8 September. Oil production averaged 1.006mn b/d so far this year, in step with the government's target.

ah/tdf