Crude oil surpassed hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGL), becoming the largest US petroleum export with 1.8 million barrels per day (b/d) of exports in the first half of 2018, according to EIA. US crude oil exports increased by 787,000 b/d, or almost 80%, from the first half of 2017 to the first half of 2018 and set a new monthly record of 2.2 million b/d in June.
Highlights
- US exported 7.3 million barrels per day (b/d) of crude oil and petroleum products in the first half of 2018, the largest amount of crude oil and petroleum product exports ever for the first six months of a year. During this period, exports of crude oil and HGL set record monthly highs.
- US exports of crude oil, HGLs, and motor gasoline grew in the first half of 2018 compared with the same period in 2017, while distillate exports decreased.
- Much of this crude oil went to destinations in Asia and Oceania such as China, South Korea, and India.
- Europe was the second-largest market for US crude oil exports, led by Italy, UK, and the Netherlands.
- Canada was the only major US crude oil export destination where exports decreased, down slightly in the first half of 2018 compared with the same period in 2017.
- HGLs—including propane, ethane, butanes, and natural gasoline—were the second-largest petroleum export from the US in the first half of 2018 at 1.6 million b/d.
- As with crude oil, destinations in Asia and Oceania such as Japan, South Korea, China, and India were also the primary recipients of US HGLs.
- These countries have expanded petrochemical facilities that import US HGLs as a feedstock. Overall US HGL exports set a new monthly record at 1.7 million b/d in May.
- In the first half of 2018, the US exported 1.3 million b/d of distillate, primarily to destinations in Central and South America.
- The decline in US distillate exports in the first half of 2018 compared with the first half of 2017 was mostly the result of lower exports to a number of destinations in Central and South America and in Europe.
- However, US distillate exports are typically higher in the second half of the year. Compared with other petroleum exports, US distillate exports go to the most destinations: 49 different destinations received at least 1,000 b/d of U.S. distillate in the first half of 2018.
- The United States exported 913,000 b/d of motor gasoline in the first half of 2018, an increase of 144,000 b/d compared with the same period in 2017.
- More than half of US motor gasoline exports went to Mexico in the first half of 2018, the largest to a single destination of any US petroleum export.
- Mexico has relatively low refinery utilization rates and in recent years has increased imports of motor gasoline and other petroleum products from the United States.
- The 504,000 b/d of gasoline exported from the United States to Mexico in the first half of 2018 was equivalent to more than 60% of the gasoline consumed in Mexico in those months.