A new trend has emerged for long-haul suezmaxes, with the first shipments of Kazakhstan crude to the US West Coast.

A Chinese-controlled ship became the first to reach California in June. A Greek vessel is also heading to the region with another cargo from the joint venture Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC).

Since 2023, all Kazakhstan-origin CPC crude to the US has been delivered to the East Coast, analytics company Kpler said.