U.S. exports of crude oil have leapt to a new high of nearly two million barrels per day (MMbbl/d), a landmark figure for a country that banned most exports just two years ago.
The shipments have been reaching customers in Canada, Europe and increasingly Asia, breaking into markets prized by the OPEC cartel.
Combined exports of crude and refined fuels such as gasoline and diesel have also pushed the U.S.' net petroleum imports to the lowest levels on record.
Federal law prohibited exports of domestic crude to all markets except Canada for 40 years until its repeal in late 2015. Exports climbed gradually in 2016, averaging less than 600,000 barrels (bbl) per day.
In recent weeks they have exploded, averaging 1.984 MMbbl/d last week and 1.491 MMbbl/d the week before, the Energy Information Administration said on Oct. 4.
The U.S. still remains a top buyer of foreign crude, having imported 7.2 MMbbl/d last week from suppliers such as Canada, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.
The U.S. exports are nevertheless creating new competition for members of OPEC. “It is worrying,” Waleed Al-Bader, deputy managing director for crude and derivatives marketing at state-run Kuwait Petroleum Corp., said when speaking last week on the sidelines of the APPEC oil conference in Singapore.
“Only now are Middle Eastern producers starting to worry about growing U.S. exports … Thing is, these U.S. exports are only just beginning to come over. There are many more barrels coming,” a Dubai-based oil trader said.
The exports have been propelled by a deep discount for American crude in comparison to Brent, the international benchmark. On Oct. 4 Brent crude settled at $55.80/bbl, while West Texas Intermediate crude was $49.98/bbl.
Production cuts from OPEC, whose members are concentrated in the eastern hemisphere, has helped push up the Brent price. Hurricane Harvey also slowed U.S. refineries’ intake of domestic oil, causing supplies to build up and prices to fall.
“This is classic Oil Markets 101—too much crude in the U.S. and too little crude elsewhere means that U.S. prices weaken relative to global prices and exports increase to address the imbalance,” Société Générale said in a note.
“OPEC cutting has forced the value of Brent higher, which then pushes the exports from the U.S.,” Tom Ramsey, CEO of JupiterMLP LLC, an oil trading and transport firm in Texas, said.
U.S. refineries and processors also exported more than five MMbbl/d of petroleum products last week, pushing total U.S. net petroleum imports to 2.75 MMbbl/d, the lowest in weekly records dating to 1991. The U.S. sells large amounts of petrol and diesel to Latin America and Europe.
U.S. petroleum products exports have been rising for years, thanks to an abundance of domestic crude supplies and the efficiency of the local refinery industry. The Trump administration has endorsed the shipments and adopted 'energy dominance' as a catchphrase.
“The U.S. encourages increased energy exports worldwide, including to Asia,” Alan Eyre, director of Middle East and Asia for the U.S. state department’s bureau of energy affairs, told the Financial Times.
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