For the first time in 35 years, no oil from Saudi Arabia flowed into the United States last week, according to data from the EIA, in a show that the United States is – at least for now – not as dependent on Middle Eastern oil. as it used to be.
According to the EIA, the United States imported 8.544 million barrels in October. In June, that figure was more than 36 million, although that figure was somewhat of an anomaly as Saudi Arabia threatened to flood the US market with crude oil.
For much of the early 2000s, the United States imported more than 45 million barrels of Saudi crude oil every month.
Source: EIA
Every week that figure has now dropped to zero.
Source: EIA
And US crude oil imports don’t just drop from Saudi Arabia. Until October, the United States imported significantly less crude oil from the Persian Gulf region.
At the beginning of the 2000s, the United States was importing more than 3 million barrels of crude oil per day from the Persian Gulf region. In October 2020, the United States was importing less than half a million barrels per day – and that figure isn’t an anomaly, it’s a clear trend. The United States is less and less dependent on foreign oil, and especially less on oil from the Persian Gulf.
Source: EIA
The data comes just as Saudi Arabia announced that oil production would be voluntarily cut by millions of barrels per day as the OPEC + group sat down at the negotiating table to devise a plan to respond to the oil market and lack of demand.
It also comes on the same day that Saudi Arabia announced a crude oil price hike for the United States for February of $ 0Mor.20 a barrel.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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