``` Agency: U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve shipped to California for the first time in history ```

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For the first time, crude oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) has been shipped to California, underscoring the reshaping of trade flows and shipping routes after the Iran war cut off Middle Eastern oil supplies.

According to Reuters, ship tracking agency Kpler revealed this unprecedented cargo movement. Led by Chevron, the oil was loaded in Louisiana and, after transiting Panama, arrived at several refineries in California.

California was once one of the leading oil-producing states in the U.S., but in recent years its reliance on imported crude has grown, reaching about 230,000 barrels per day from the Middle East last year. Due to competitive demand from Asia, supplies of other alternative crude are also limited.

Complex Transfer Route: From Louisiana via Panama to California

According to bill of lading data cited by Kpler, the oil transported this time was Louisiana Bayou Choctaw Sweet crude, with about 460,000 barrels delivered to Chevron’s Richmond refinery and another 50,000 barrels offloaded at Chevron’s El Segundo refinery.

The transportation route was rather circuitous. According to Kpler, the tanker Red Moon loaded nearly 980,000 barrels of Bayou Choctaw Sweet crude in Louisiana and offloaded at the Atlantic-side terminal in Panama in early May, with Chevron listed as the seller of this batch of cargo.

Subsequently, the oil was transported via a 131-kilometer pipeline, crossing the Isthmus of Panama from the Atlantic-side terminal to the Pacific-side terminal.

The very large crude carrier Pascagoula Voyager, chartered by Chevron, then loaded about 2 million barrels of crude at the Pacific-side terminal, some of which was blended with Guyana’s Unity Gold grade of crude, and then sailed to the U.S. West Coast.

Kpler noted that after arrival, the very large crude carrier transferred the oil to two smaller vessels, which then separately delivered the cargo to various refineries in California.

Chevron previously stated that it used a Jones Act waiver in May to transfer crude from the Gulf Coast to the West Coast.

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