Almost 5 million barrels have been shipped out of Vancouver so far in October, a record for the first 15 days of any month, according to Vortexa ship tracking data.

Chinese buyers were recently stockpiling more than half a million barrels a day of foreign crude to take advantage of steep price discounts for Russian and Iranian oil amid growing US pressure to economically hobble those nations.

More than 70% of oil-laden vessels departing the British Columbia port have sailed for China, according to the data. The remainder headed for the US West Coast, an area off Los Angeles where cargoes typically are offloaded to larger tankers for shipment elsewhere, or had no listed destination.

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