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====== Sour ======

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Sour crude oil supplies for U.S. Gulf Coast oil refiners will be squeezed in coming weeks, market participants said, as global demand rises following this month's OPEC+ production cut.

"We see sour demand being quite strong globally," said Jenna Delaney, head of North American crude at consultancy Energy Aspects. New refinery capacity coming online east of the Suez Canal also will increase the call for sour barrels "for the remainder of the year," Delaney added.

A lot of refiners in the U.S. Gulf Coast are configured to process the high sulfur crude, and are currently pulling in minimal sour barrels from the Middle East, instead ramping up Venezuelan crude imports, said Matt Smith, lead oil analyst for the Americas at Kpler.

Meanwhile, exports of popular U.S. and Canadian sour grades ramped up in March, mainly as Chinese refiners snapped up the barrels, Kpler data showed.

Top U.S. refiners Valero Energy Corp (VLO.N) <https://www.reuters.com/companies/VLO.N> and Marathon Petroleum Corp (MPC.N) <https://www.reuters.com/companies/MPC.N> as well as BP Plc's (BP.L) <https://www.reuters.com/companies/BP.L> Whiting refinery in the Midwest are top buyers of sour crude, said Hillary Stevenson, a senior director at IIR Energy.