EIA Report -- December 29, 2017 -- US Crude Oil Import Data For October, 2017, Has Just Been Posted

Great read over at SeekingAlpha. I don't have time to comment but important enough to get it posted. The comments at the article are just as important. Will archive.

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US Crude Oil Imports From Saudi Arabia 

This is simply extraordinary. Unless Saudi Arabia oil is "special" (and, of course, it is not), US refiners have found alternate sources for Saudi oil that used to be imported. Saudi does have its own refinery in the US and will want to keep supplying that refinery with their oil, but unless there's something special about Saudi oil ... oh, I guess I already said that. Link here.

One needs to go all the way back to the 1980's to see such little Saudi Arabian oil being imported into the US.

By the way, making this data even more interesting, OPEC imports actually increased month-over-month, suggesting that even as Saudi Arabia is cutting exports to the US, OPEC, overall, has a more spotty record.

Saudi Arabia is losing market share to other OPEC nations. My hunch is that at $60 WTI/ $66 Brent, Saudi Arabia is ready to open their spigots.

So, quick: who exports more crude oil (and petroleum products) to the US: Russia or Saudi Arabia. One may be surprised at the answer. Obviously, it is Saudi Arabia, but the amount if not particularly different: 18 million bbls/month (Saudi) vs 11 million bbls/month (Russia), assuming I'm reading the tables correctly.