Every two weeks we assess public data — EIA petroleum records, port statistics, federal freight reports — and look for what actually changed. Our curated bi-weekly analysis. Nothing we don't use; nothing we can't prove.
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“It’s not what you know, it’s what you can prove.” We report what the records can corroborate. Nothing more.
Tight inventories are a routing problem, not an emergency. We write it that way.
Long enough to be useful. Short enough that you actually read it.
No signup required to judge whether this is worth your inbox. Here's most of Issue 01.
The short version. Three things moved in the same direction this quarter. US crude imports from the Persian Gulf fell 59% between April and May. Crude exports ran 28% above last year and product exports 20% above. And jet fuel began building length — production up 10.3%, stocks up 7.9%.
None of it is a crisis. All of it changes what a fixture list should look like.
| Current | Year ago | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crude exports | 3,467 | 2,698 | +28% |
| Product exports | 8,063 | 6,711 | +20% |
| Net crude imports | 2,216 | 3,438 | −36% |
| Jet production | 2,061 | 1,868 | +10.3% |
Thousand barrels per day, week ending 24 July 2026.
Crude is fungible. Sea room is not. Barrels replaced from Ras Tanura by barrels from Guyana, Brazil or Ecuador arrive over a materially shorter voyage. We won't publish a tonne-mile figure — the routing assumptions do more work than the data supports — but the direction isn't in question. Shorter import voyages release tonnage faster, which tightens the link between Gulf Coast loading demand and available ships.
Meanwhile Port Houston's liquid bulk exports are up 19% year to date against 13% for imports, on a vessel count up 13% year over year. Loading is growing faster than discharge at the largest US port by tonnage.
The full issue covers the origin-by-origin breakdown, the jet fuel build and where it sits, Hormuz exposure with the arithmetic attached, and the four things we'd re-plan around.
Get the full issueEvery issue stays up. Nothing behind a wall after the fact.
Persian Gulf imports −59% in a month. Crude exports +28%, products +20%. Jet building length on the Gulf Coast.
Whether the April–May origin shift held, and whether the jet build found an export outlet.
Publishing every other Tuesday. If an issue would have nothing worth saying in it, we skip it rather than pad it.
Written for people who make routing, sourcing and contracting decisions — and who'd rather check a number than be told to trust it.
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