Crude imports to the U.S. Midwest increased to a record last week in anticipation of a new pipeline linking the region to Cushing, Oklahoma , the nation’s supply hub. Shipments to the region, known as PADD 2, climbed 26 percent to 2.53 million barrels a day in the week ended Oct. 3, the most in Energy Information Administration weekly data that began in 1990. Deliveries to the U.S. from Canada, more than two-thirds of which enter through the Midwest, topped 3 million barrels a day for the first time, preliminary EIA data show. Demand to ship on Enbridge Inc.’s Lakehead system, the largest conduit for Canadian crude into the U.S., increased in October. Enbridge plans to start filling the 600,000-barrel-a-day Flanagan South pipeline with oil next month, opening an additional connection between the Chicago area and Cushing, the delivery point for New York futures. “When that pipeline opens, you […]