Since Jimmy Carter 1977 took office as the president of the United States, the import of crude oil from Saudi Arabia has been regarded as the main security risk of the United States, and the US government has been seeking to eliminate its dependence on Middle East oil. 10 years ago, American refiners imported about 1 10,000 barrels of crude oil from Saudi Arabia every day. At that time, Saudi Arabia was the second largest supplier of crude oil to the United States, second only to Canada.
After only ten years, the crude oil trade between the two countries has dropped to zero.
In recent months, Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports to the United States have fallen sharply.
Since it takes about six weeks for an oil tanker from Saudi Arabia to reach the dock in the western United States, this downward trend is becoming more and more obvious. Us energy information administration's Zhou Du data show that this is the first week since September 1985 that the United States has not received crude oil imported from Saudi Arabia.
Earlier this week, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies reassessed their production plans, allowing Russia and Kazakhstan to increase production slightly in February and March, while other countries kept production unchanged. Subsequently, Saudi Arabia announced that it would cut oil production by 1 10,000 barrels in the next two months. The decision of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries caused the global Brent crude oil futures price to soar to more than $54 per barrel, and the US West Texas Intermediate crude oil price also exceeded $50 per barrel.
"It is a historic moment for the United States to import Saudi crude oil at zero, although it may only be temporary." Karim, an energy researcher at IHS Markit, said.
In May and June last year, after a fierce price war with Russia, Saudi Arabia's oil exports to the United States more than doubled compared with a year ago. Since then, Saudi Arabia's oil exports to the United States have been steadily declining. According to preliminary data from us energy information administration, Saudi Arabia only sent 73,000 barrels of oil to the United States every day in June and February last year.