Wood Mackenzie monitoring of VLCC activity across the Gulf of Mexico shows two distinct patterns emerging in the region. First, roughly 15 tracked VLCCs were sitting idle near Corpus Christi and Galveston through the week ending Jan 9, some waiting since December, reflecting a standstill in US Gulf loadings.
The prolonged waits could point to a mix of berth congestion, scheduling reshuffles, and pilotage constraints, with fog also occasionally disrupting terminal operations in winter months.
A brief pause in VLCC loadings last week pulled US crude exports below the 1mn b/d mark. VLCC movements restarted in the week ending Jan16, with the recent departures of the Saudi‑flagged vessels Amad and Qamran to Asia. Furthermore, the DHT Colt also departed in the same week, reportedly fixed by P66 for Taiwan.
On a separate track, since the US intervention in Venezuela in early January, Wood Mackenzie tracking has recorded no VLCCs loading Venezuelan crude for Asian destinations since early January, despite VLCCs being the dominant vessel class historically used for flows to China and wider Asian ports.
