OPEC Export to US Declining

OPEC’s share of US oil imports has been declining and has dropped sharply over the last few years.

In 1990, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries supplied 62% of all crude imported into the US. This share gradually declined until 2008, as Canadian output grew and displaced imports from overseas.

After 2008, the combination of the financial crisis and booming US shale output caused OPEC’s global market share to decline sharply, falling to 36% in 2015. Decreased domestic production in 2016 led the US to import more from OPEC in 2016, but at 40%, OPEC’s share of US crude oil imports is the second-lowest on record, Oil Price reported.

Recent reports suggest that Saudi Arabia, OPEC's top exporter, may cut oil shipments to the US in an attempt to improve inventory data. Saudi Arabia is the largest OPEC supplier of oil to the US, shipping a total of 14.5 billion barrels of oil since 1986. The kingdom has been the US’s foremost oil supplier, among OPEC nations, in 23 of the past 31 years  since the US Energy Information Administration started keeping records on all US oil imports, compiling data on all 91.2 billion barrels of oil the US has imported since.

Imports from Saudi Arabia have recently been in decline, however, as rising domestic production reduces the need for imports. In 2016, the US imported just over 400 million barrels of crude from Saudi Arabia. Venezuela is the second-most important provider of OPEC crude to the US, with 11.9 billion barrels sent to the US over the past 31 years. Venezuela’s heavy oil is in decline, likely being displaced by similarly heavy oil from Canada. Venezuela provided the US with about 271 million barrels of oil in 2016.

Nigeria is third-largest among OPEC crude import partners and has shipped a total of 7.8 billion barrels of crude oil since 1986. The shale boom and domestic unrest quickly forced Nigeria out of the US oil trade.

In 2010, the US imported 983 million barrels of oil from Nigeria. Only four years later, though, this value had fallen to merely 58 million barrels, a drop of 94%.