Since the US is Now a Net Exporter of Petro Products, Why is it Effected by High Oil Prices?

America in 2011 exported more petrol products, on an annual basis, than it imported for the 1st time since 1949, but American refiners still imported huge, though declining, amounts of crude oil, according to full-year trade info from EIA’s Petrol Supply Monthly Feb report. The rise in foreign purchases of distillate fuel donated the most to the United States changing into a net exporter of petrol products. U.S.

Petrol product net exports ( exports minus imports ) averaged 0.44 million barrels every day ( bbl / d ) in 2011, with imports at a nine-year low of close to 2.4 million bbl / d and exports at a high of virtually 2.9 million bbl / d.

The distance between exports and imports dilated the most in the 2nd 1/2 the year from Aug thru December with total monthly exports topping 3,000,000 bbl / d for the 1st time. 

Robust world demand helped push distillate exports, as distillate fuel, which includes diesel, had a higher profit markup for U.S. Refiners than gasoline. Refiners also had access to increased supplies of crude oil imports from Canada, which in 2011 topped 2,000,000 bbl / d for the 1st time, and from North Dakota’s Bakken formation to process into petrol products.

 

The United States stayed a net importer of crude oil, some of which was refined into petrol products that were then exported. Petrol products were ranked 2nd in cost of all U.S. Exports during 2011 at $111.1 bill, up 60 percent from 2010, according to U.S.

Automobiles were the premier U.S. Export last year at $132.5 bln. Crude oil was the most important U.S. Import, valued at $331.6 bn., up 32% from 2010.

Rising crude oil costs, instead of higher crude oil import volumes, were the important driver of the enhanced value of crude oil imports.

Canada stayed the largest exporter of total petrol in December; exporting 2,932 thousand barrels every day to the United States, which is an increase from the prior year. (2,815 thousand barrels each day). The second biggest exporter of total petrol was Saudi Arabia with 1,310 thousand barrels each day.

In 2010, about 49% of the petrol consumed by the United States was brought in from foreign nations. “Petroleum” includes crude oil and refined petrol products like gasoline. About 78% of gross petrol imports in 2010 were crude oil. About 62% of the crude oil processed in U.S. Refineries was imported. Petrol importers to the US are Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria. Their various rankings change dependent on whether you consider total / gross petrol imports or net petrol imports.

By the broadest standard U.S. dependence on imported oil slid from 60.3 % in 2005 to 49.3% in 2010. If processing gains acquired from imported crudes are counted as imports then dependence falls from highs of 63.6 % in 2005 to 52.8 % last year. A much narrower measure that investigates crude oil imports into the United States as a proportion of total refinery crude inputs ( Measurement C ) excludes ethanol, biodiesel, and natural gas liquids ( NGLs ) as sources of petrol products that are nearly entirely domestic in origin and also doesn’t reflect the significant fresh expansion in U.S. Petrol product exports. By that measure, import reliance was sixty two % last year, still seriously below its 2008 top of 66.6%.

There is not any single reason for the fall in U.S. Oil import reliance since 2005. Rather, the trend results from a spread of factors. Chief among those is a major contraction in consumption. U.S. Oil product deliveries declined by 1.7 million barrels each day ( bbl / d ) to 19.1 bbl / d in 2010, from 20.8 million bbl / d in 2005. This decline in part reflects the recession in the base economy after the finance crisis of 2008.

Unsurprisingly, demand has rebounded back rather from lows of 18.8 million bbl / d in 2009, when the U.S. Economy bottomed out. But the declining trend in consumption started 2 years before the 2008 crisis and reflects factors like changes in potency and buyer behavior as well as patterns of commercial expansion. 

Shifts in supply patterns, including increases in domestic biofuels production, NGL output and refinery gain, also played a crucial role in moderating import dependence. U.S. Ethanol net inputs grew from 230,000 bbl / d in 2005 to 779,000 bbl / d in 2010, helping to displace conventional hydrocarbon fuels and so reducing petrol import wants. Powerful gains in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and the Bakken formation brought decades of contraction in domestic oil production to a unexpected halt, and even led straight to a bounce back.