Opec exports to US fall to a five-year low as cartel cuts its output
US oil imports from Opec countries have dropped to five-year lows as the oil producing cartel cuts output, while US domestic production grows.
Opec’s sales to the world’s biggest economy fell 22 per cent month-on-month and 37 per cent year on year, to 1.4m barrels per day, data from energy intelligence company Kpler shows.
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The January decrease was the largest in the past 12 months as Opec cut production in response to falling oil prices.
Saudi Arabia’s exports to the US finished 2018 at just 530,000 barrels per day, a massive drop from the 940,000 overage over the last five years.
Meanwhile, imports are set to drop further as the US slapped sanctions on Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
It comes as US President Donald Trump on Tuesday hailed what he called a “revolution in American energy.”
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“The United States is now the number one producer of oil and natural gas anywhere in the world,” Trump said during his State of the Union address to Congress.
“And now, for the first time in 65 years, we are a net exporter of energy,” he added, although fact-checkers at Politico said this is still a few years off.