The number of countries receiving exported US crude oil has risen since the removal of restrictions on exporting oil in December 2015, the US Energy Information Administration said in a report.
US crude oil exports have occurred despite relatively small price spreads between international crude oils and domestic crude oils, as well as other factors that should reduce crude oil exports such as falling US crude oil production and added cargo export costs, World Oil reported. Based on the latest data, US crude oil exports averaged 501,000 barrels per day in the first five months of 2016, 43,000 bpd (9%) more than the full-year 2015 daily average. US exports of crude oil had already increased significantly before the lifting of crude oil export restrictions.
These exports were mostly to Canada, which was excluded from the previous restrictions. From 2000 to 2013, US exports rarely surpassed 100,000 bpd. By 2015, the United States was exporting 422,000 bpd to Canada and a total of 26,000 bpd to five other countries, the report said. Other than Canada, the largest and most consistent US crude oil export destination for the first five months of 2016 has been Curacao, an island nation located in the Caribbean Sea north of Venezuela.
US crude oil exports to Curacao averaged 54,000 bpd through May. Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state-owned oil company of Venezuela, operates the 330,000 bpd Isla refinery on Curacao, as well as crude and petroleum product storage facilities on the island. Continued increases in US crude oil exports will likely depend on increase in US crude oil production and significantly wider price differences between domestic and international crude oils, neither of which are projected in EIA's August Short-Term Energy Outlook.
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