BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec.6
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
US monthly petroleum exports have surpassed imports in September for the first time since 1973, Trend reports citing the US Energy Information Administration.
As EIA estimates, the country’s exports in September were 89,000 barrels per day (b/d) more than the import volume, while a decade ago the country’s imports were exceeding exports by 10 million b/d.
“Long-running changes in US trade patterns for both crude oil and petroleum products have resulted in a steady decrease in overall US net petroleum imports,” said the EIA.
“Increasing US crude oil production, which rose from an average of 5.3 million b/d in 2009 to 12.1 million b/d in 2019 (through September), has resulted in a decrease in US crude oil imports from an average of 9 million b/d in 2009 to 7.0 million b/d in 2019 (through September). The decrease in US crude oil imports also corresponded with a decrease in the number of sources the United States imported crude oil from.
“In December 2015, the United States lifted restrictions on exporting domestically produced crude oil. Since then, US crude oil exports have been the largest contributor to US petroleum export growth; US crude oil exports have grown from 591,000 b/d in 2016 to 2.8 million b/d in 2019 through September.
“Despite increasing exports of crude oil, however, the United States remains a net importer of crude oil. The United States continues importing primarily heavy high-sulfur crude oils that most US refineries are configured to process, and more than 60% of US crude oil imports come from Canada and Mexico,” reads the report.
The US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO) had anticipated that the United States would transition to net petroleum exports on a monthly basis in September 2019. In the most recent STEO, EIA forecast that US net petroleum exports will continue to increase, averaging 751,000 b/d in 2020. If realized, the United States would be a net petroleum exporter for the first time on an annual basis.
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