OREANDA-NEWS. Crude tankers in November ended almost weekly runs from the Buckeye Partners crude terminal at Albany, New York, to the 300,000 b/d Irving Oil refinery at Saint John, New Brunswick, an Albany port official said.

Port general manager Richard Hendrick said no shipments are scheduled, and the lack of business has reduced work available for Hudson river pilots and local security personnel.

"That was over 50pc of the work for the Hudson river pilots, so that was a big hit to them," Hendrick said.

It's not yet clear why the shipment has stopped, but with the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent benchmarks at virtual parity, some refiners that had switched to onshore crude supplies have begun to increase waterborne imports. Buckeye and Irving did not respond to requests for comment.

The other crude transloading terminal in Albany, owned by Global Partners, continues to transfer light crude from unit trains onto barges down the Hudson, Hendrick said. He estimated that the two terminals, which between them had been taking two or three units trains daily, now are handling "about 60pc" of that volume.