Asian Refiners Redirect Middle East Crude to the U.S. as Hormuz Flows Recover

Some Asian refiners have recently offered Middle Eastern cargoes to the U.S. West Coast as supply from the Persian Gulf rises with the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, while Asian buyers are well-supplied for the next two months. Refiners in Asia have spent the better part of the past four months scrambling to procure crude for the summer from producers outside the Middle East. Buyers now have enough non-Middle Eastern crude lined up to arrive over the next two months, meaning that spot purchases from the Middle East aren’t really an immediate…