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Military Fuel Tenders Signal Shift From Hormuz-Linked Routes
US Diesel and Jet Fuel Cargoes Are Set for Asia-Pacific Locations Typically Supplied From Middle East
An unusual series of cargoes of military-grade fuel that is due to sail from the U.S. across the Pacific Ocean illustrates how far the war in Iran has disrupted the global oil supply chain.
A request for offers to ship 235,000 barrels of jet fuel from Cherry Point in Blaine, Wash., where BP has a refinery, to Subic Bay in the Philippines, a strategic access point and logistics hub for U.S. naval operations, was issued April 23, according to a document seen by Bloomberg. The cargo is scheduled to depart in early June.
A separate tender was issued for 260,000 barrels of military-grade jet fuel or diesel from Cherry Point to a port in the Yokose area of Sasebo, Japan, for voyages in May and June, the document seen by Bloomberg says. The Yokose wharf serves U.S. Navy ships.
The shipments would add to a growing trend of American fuel heading to regions that typically rely on supplies from the Strait of Hormuz. The Asia-Pacific region has been particularly impacted because of its dependence on crude and fuel flows from the waterway, which has been constrained by the Middle East conflict. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said April 24 that the U.S. will soon have two aircraft carriers blockading the strait.
A spokesperson for U.S. Transportation Command, which oversees bulk-fuel management and delivery for the military, declined to comment on or confirm the proposals. The military frequently uses different routes, including for the purposes of testing new routes or reaching specific drop-off locations, the spokesperson said.
BP declined to comment, as the company generally doesn’t comment on trading or shipping movements.
Products cited in the documents are JP-5 and F-76. JP-5 is a jet fuel primarily used on Naval aviation platforms, while F-76 is standard Navy-grade diesel, according to Bradley Martin, a senior policy researcher at RAND and a retired U.S. Navy captain.
Commercial vessels frequently carry crude oil and fuel for military purposes, Martin said. But a typical leg of the supply chain — Middle Eastern crude that’s then refined in countries such as Singapore and South Korea — has been upended by the war. Crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz have all but come to a halt, while refiners in Asia are producing less fuel.
That may mean the U.S. is now turning to atypical trade routes, such as sending fuel straight to Asia. Subic Bay and Yokose both have defense fuel-support points, where military vessels can pick up fuel to distribute throughout the fleet, Martin said.
A spokesperson for the Navy referred Bloomberg to the U.S. Seventh Fleet for comment and said it doesn’t comment on the future movements of fuel logistics for operational security purposes. Officials at the Seventh Fleet didn’t immediately respond for comment.
Only four shipments of JP-5 have departed from the U.S. since 2017, according to data from energy analytics firm Kpler. And Vortexa, another industry analytics firm, only has one record of a U.S. commercial jet-fuel shipment to Japan and the Philippines, a lone 93,000-barrel cargo to the Philippines.
While most of the U.S.’s fuel exports come from the Gulf Coast, the West Coast also has been exporting since the outbreak of war. A record number of diesel cargoes have been departing from the West Coast for Australia. Still, the supply-constrained region continues to rely heavily on imports following the mothballing of some California refineries in the past year.
The shipments from Cherry Point also underscore the state of energy demand as a global jet fuel crunch has prompted flight cancellations worldwide and driven up airfares.
