Trump Can’t Save Oil Prices With Saudi Import Ban
About 40 million barrels of Saudi oil are sailing for U.S. ports, and stopping them won't do much good.
It’s on its way.
Photographer: Jean-Francois Monier/AFP via Getty Images
Banning imports of crude oil from Saudi Arabia is just the sort of gesture that might appeal to President Donald Trump, who has vowed to protect jobs in the U.S. shale patch. But such a move wouldn’t do much to reverse the decline in prices that has seen the May contract for West Texas oil fall below zero.
As we speak, there is a small armada of ships full of Saudi crude heading to the U.S. Most of it is scheduled to arrive next month, when storage space is expected to be near full and refiners are highly unlikely to be ramping up processing rates. Bloomberg has identified 20 very large crude carriers, known in the industry as VLCCs, that loaded since the beginning of March, each hauling about 2 million barrels of the kingdom’s crude toward American ports on the Gulf and West coasts. They are due to arrive by the end of May. Several more that aren’t showing a destination could be heading the same way.