EIA: US Oil Imports Drop 1.5% from Year Ago in November

By David Bird of Dow Jones Newswires, WSJ, Jan 28, 2011
U.S. crude oil imports in November fell 1.5% or 132,000 barrels a day, from a year ago to 8.608 million barrels a day, government data released Friday show.

Figures from the Energy Information Administration show imports were up 119,000 barrels a day, or 1.4%, from October.

Canada maintained its role as the top crude source, a position it has held since March 2006, with imports at 1.975 million barrels a day. [See Table below]. Canada accounted for 22.9% of U.S. crude imports, the highest share since December 2009.

Mexico, the number two supplier, shipped the highest volume since May and its 14.3% share of imports was the highest since November 2007.

Imports from Iraq rebounded, pushing the Middle East supplier up to eighth place from 13th in October.

Crude supplies from ninth-place Angola hit the lowest level since July 2005.

With members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, led by number-three supplier Saudi Arabia, holding seven of the top 10 spots, supplies from OPEC rose about 200,000 barrels a day in the month. OPEC [including supplies from Libya and Kuwait -- D.R.] accounted for 48.4% of U.S. crude imports, up from 46.8% in October and unchanged from a year earlier.

Imported crude cost $87.72 a barrel, the highest level since September 2008, and up from $74.40 a barrel a year ago. The average import price in November was the highest ever for the month on EIA data beginning in 1974. [Full story]

EIA Top 10 US Crude Oil Import Sources*

(figures in million barrels per day)

                       Nov      Oct     Nov   Jan-Nov    Jan-Nov

                      2010     2010    2009     2010       2009

Canada               1.975    1.840   2.018    1.963      1.928

Mexico               1.229    1.178   0.951    1.132      1.095

Saudi Arabia         1.119    1.114   0.847    1.081      0.991

Venezuela            0.884    0.887   0.793    0.920      0.968

Nigeria              0.806    0.812   0.948    0.982      0.753

Colombia             0.489    0.400   0.216    0.349      0.258

Algeria              0.379    0.259   0.219    0.331      0.276

Iraq                 0.340    0.143   0.461    0.421      0.461

Angola               0.263    0.311   0.408    0.387      0.465

Ecuador              0.188    0.203   0.150    0.196      0.190

*Prepared by David Bird
(Top 7 OPEC suppliers of crude to the U.S. are Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Algeria, Iraq, Angola and Ecuador. The U.S. also imports crude from other OPEC members: Kuwait and Libya. See EIA data and November 2010 Import Highlights -- D.R.)