Preliminary data shows that US crude oil imports in July decreased by around 200 tb/d or 2.2%, to average 8.9 mb/d. This constituted a decline of 400 tb/d or 4.3% from the same period last year. Product imports in the US saw a decrease of 200 tb/d or 8.9% on a month-on-month (m-o-m) basis, to average 2 mb/d; they were 316 tb/d or 13.4% lower on a year-on-year (y-o-y) basis. On a year-to-date analysis, crude and product  imports fell by 1.7% and 20.3% respectively.
The declining trend applied to exports as well. Product exports fell in July by 45.2 tb/d or 1.56% from the previous month, to average 2.8 mb/d. However, on an annual basis, there was an increase of 3 tb/d or 0.12%. Consequently, US net oil imports declined in July by 352 tb/d to 8.06 mb/d, representing a decrease of 4.2% m-o-m and 7.8% y-o-y. May saw an increase in US crude oil imported from OPEC Member Countries, on both
an m-o-m and y-o-y basis. Amounting to 49.3% of total US crude oil imports, this reflected an increase of 7.5% from levels seen in April and is the highest figure since July 2011. Annually, imports from OPEC countries were 3% higher than in the previous year.
With regard to the sources of crude oil imports, the top suppliers to the US in May were in the same order as in the previous month. Canada and Saudi Arabia were ranked as the first and second suppliers, although both saw decreases in their crude oil volumes exported to the US in May, of 1.78% and 7.69% respectively. While crude imports from Mexico, the third-ranked supplier to the US, saw a small increase of 0.3%, crude oil imports from Venezuela fell by 1.7% in May. Y-o-y, rises of 18.5% and 22.4% were registered for crude imports from Canada and Saudi Arabia, while imports from Mexico and Venezuela fell by 17.2% and 8.3%.
Imports of petroleum products from Member Countries in May declined by 29 tb/d or 9%, both m-o-m and y-o-y. Canada and Russia were the first and second sources of product supply, as in the previous month, with shares of 28.8% and 20% respectively. In third position came Algeria, which increased its product exports to the US from April to hold a share of 7.2%. The Netherlands and the UK ranked fourth, with an equal share of 5.4%. As to the latest monthly data, this shows that US crude oil imports increased in May by 3.7% from April. This is seen as the highest rise since October 2011. Moreover, the volume imported from the Middle East region hit its highest level since April 2003. This came as a result of larger quantities lifted from Iraq, which increased its exports to the US in May, to stand as the fifth-highest supplier to that country. Annually, Iraq increased its exports to the US by 66% from last year’s level, while Kuwait, which was ranked as the sixth-largest supplier to the US in May, more than doubled its exports to the US from last year’s levels.
Source: OPEC