Event Highlights: Innovation Series Houston 2024
After an inspiring start in Singapore last week, Vortexa’s Innovation Series moved to the energy capital of the world, Houston. This gathering was not just a conference, it’s an exploration of the dynamic and ever-evolving landscape of the energy and freight markets.
The event, which took place on Tuesday, September 17, began with a session on market trends where Vortexa’s Rohit Rathod, Jay Maroo, and Pamela Munger presented the latest insights on current challenges and opportunities in the seaborne oil market.
Although global seaborne oil imports are trending lower over 2023/2024, North American oil exports reach new records somewhat mitigating the supply curtailments seen from OPEC. However, these exports are coming at a time when motor fuel imports growth engine looks to be stalling especially in key markets such as West Africa and US Atlantic Coast. Amid supply curtailments and OPEC’s need to maximise earnings, onshore crude stocks have recently fallen to seasonal lows in OECD and OPEC+, with Saudi Arabia shouldering most of the cutting effort.
We also explored the recent developments surrounding TMX and its impact on Vacouver exports. Namely we see most of the flows have been headed to PADD 5 refiners but also a relatively stable flow emerging to Far East Asia. In recent weeks we have seen a pivot away from Transpacific VLCC shipments and instead direct Aframax shipments.
After a thirty minute market presentation, we moved to a Central Panel “Navigating the new realities of global trade dynamics” where industry leaders including Bruce Fulin, Vice President Argus Media, Amanda Townsley, Sr. Director Energy Research from CME Group, Christian Rodriguez, Quantitative Analyst from Scorpio Group, Manash Goswami, Vice President Analytics Editor from Rystad Energy and Rohit Rathod, Senior Market Analyst from Vortexa explored the new realities of global trade dynamics.
The panel explored key issues such as U.S. crude supply, potential rallies in crude prices, and how shipping trends might influence global oil prices. We also took a deeper look at rising infrastructure projects in the US Gulf especially port expansions, pipelines, new terminals and dredging all working to facilitate growing US seaborne energy exports.
The evening concluded with a networking reception, where participants connected and engaged in lively discussions on market opportunities. We extend our sincere thanks to all our guests who have attended the event.
We welcome you to join us at our final Innovation Series event in London (26 Sep).
