A cargo of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil is headed to Israel for the first time in nearly three years, according to ship-tracking data.The Malta-flagged Aframax tanker Captain John loaded the crude at Enbridge’s Ingleside terminal near Corpus Christi, Texas, on Thursday and is bound for Israel’s southern port of Ashkelon, data from LSEG showed, as cited by Reuters.The vessel is carrying around 550,000 barrels of WTI crude, according to LSEG. An Aframax tanker can carry up to 750,000 barrels. The shipment has been chartered by global trading house Vitol, which did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Data from Kpler showed that the last US crude shipment to Israel took place in October 2023.The shipment comes amid the ongoing US-Israel conflict with Iran, which began on February 28 and has significantly disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a key global energy transit route that previously handled about one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and natural gas supplies.
