Wood Mackenzie monitoring shows the VLCC Seaways Cape Henry is reverse lightering off California’s Pacific Area Lightering zone, consolidating Canadian crude for a long-haul voyage to Asia. Aframax vessels have recently handled most of the Canadian flows to Asia, but the Seaways Cape Henry is the latest VLCC to load offshore the U.S. West Coast. The crude originates inland Canada and moves to Burnaby’s Westridge Terminal via the Trans Mountain Expansion pipeline.
Three Aframax vessels are delivering volumes to the VLCC, building an expected total cargo of just over 2.1mn bbls. The P. Monterey is en route with roughly 658,000 bbls, the Aqualeader is scheduled to add about 699,000 bbls, and the New Alliance has already discharged around 748,000 bbls onto the Seaways Cape Henry.
The most likely destination is the refinery hub around Zhoushan, China, where demand for Canadian grades remains strong. Asian refiners continue to seek these barrels for blending flexibility and attractive pricing, particularly as TMX unlocks new export capacity and reshapes trade flows. This move underscores a structural shift with Canadian crude now firmly part of the Pacific Basin supply chain.
