Peruvian niche Brittany crude popular in U.S.
Arasi Somaseka
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Peru's niche Brittany crude is growing in popularity in the United States, with the first cargoes this month in the U.S. as U.S. refiners look for alternatives to declining Mexican heavy crude Gulf Coast unloading.
Britannia is a rare, heavy, sweet crude oil that contains very few metals and is produced on the Peruvian side of the Amazon rainforest. It is then barged down the Amazon River and loaded onto larger ships departing from Brazil.
Ship tracking data from Kpler and LSEG show that the Radiant Pride transported about 300,000 barrels of Britannia from Manaus on the Rio Negro in Brazil and unloaded in Houston on January 2.
Sources said the cargo was purchased by oil giant Shell. Shell declined to comment.
Matt Smith said: “Given the decline in the volume of heavy, sour crude from Mexico to the U.S. Gulf Coast last year, we are starting to see new heavy crude being brought in to make up for this loss – a trend we expect to continue. Go down.” Kepler analyst.
U.S. imports from Mexico fell to their lowest levels on record in 2024 as Mexican oil production fell and much of the output remained for refining at home.
Peruvian Bretaña, a relatively new entrant to the market since it began production in 2018, unloaded cargo on the U.S. West Coast last year, with one shipment at Marathon Petroleum and another at a PBF Energy terminal, Kpler data showed.
Marathon Oil declined to comment. PBF Energy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
PetroTal Corp, the producer of Block 95 where the Brittania field is located, bought the assets from Canadian producer Gran Tierra Energy in 2017 and is now trading daily Produces approximately 20,000 barrels of oil.
Zuniga said challenges in transporting crude through pipelines operated by Peru's state oil company Petroperu led to a brief halt in exports between 2022 and 2024.
Peruvian oil companies have struggled to keep the line running in recent years as leaks and social conflicts disrupted deliveries.
Kpler data shows that between 2020 and 2022, the Britannia shipped three cargoes to the West Coast of the United States and one cargo to the East Coast of the United States.
About 90% of the Brittanian crude produced by PetroTal is exported, with the remainder transported by barge to Petroperu's refinery in Iquitos, Zúñiga said.
Zúñiga added that PetroTal has a contract with Houston-based Novum Energy, under which Novum purchases crude oil for export and arranges its transportation.
Novum did not immediately respond to a request for comment.