Natural Gas, LNG, Export
Crude oil exports in the first half of 2017 increased by more than 300,000 barrels per day (bpd) from the first half of 2016, a 57-percent increase. Petroleum product exports grew over the same period as well. Crude oil and propane exports each reached record highs of 0.9 million bpd, and distillate exports reached a record of 1.3 million bpd.
Although crude oil exports during the period grew, the growth rate in the first half of 2017 was lower than in the first halves of 2013, 2014 and 2015, when exports increased at year-over-year rates of 88 percent, 134 percent and 70 percent, respectively. Following the removal of restrictions on exporting U.S. crude oil in December 2015, crude oil exports have been characterized by greater volatility. The range between the highest and lowest monthly exports in the first half of 2017 was 370,000 bpd, compared with 334,000 bpd in the first half of 2016. These levels are also greater than ranges in recent history of 161,000 bpd in 2015 and 147,000 bpd in 2014. Before 2014, crude oil exports tended to fluctuate less, with ranges commonly less than 100,000 bpd.
Distillate exports in the first half of 2017 outpaced those in the first half of 2016 by 14 percent, with exports to South and Central America accounting for nearly 70 percent (114,000 bpd) of this growth. As a result, the share of distillate exports to Central and South America increased slightly to 56 percent, while the share of exports to Western Europe fell to 19 percent. Mexico remained the largest single destination for U.S. distillate, averaging 17 percent of total exports (223,000 bpd), followed by Brazil at 14 percent (180,000 bpd) and the Netherlands at 6 percent (81,000 bpd).
In the first half of 2017, despite consistently strong domestic demand, U.S. exports of total motor gasoline averaged a record high of 756,000 bpd, a 3-percent increase from the first half of 2016. High levels of domestic production of gasoline contributed to this recordhigh export level. Exports to Central and South America saw strong growth, increasing 24 percent over the first half of last year.
Mexico accounted for 53 percent of total U.S. gasoline exports. This level may have been driven partly by recent market reforms that allow entities other than state-owned Pemex to import petroleum products. Although Mexico produces large amounts of crude oil, refinery outputs such as gasoline have been declining since 2015. In the first half of 2017, Mexico suffered unexpected refinery outages that reduced production of gasoline and distillates even further, and U.S. exports of gasoline to Mexico increased by 27,000 bpd compared with the first half of 2016. U.S. gasoline exports to Canada fell from an average of 68,000 bpd in the first half of 2016 (the second-highest after Mexico) to 22,000 bpd in the first half of 2017.
Total propane exports reached a record high of 913,000 bpd in the first half of 2017, up from 790,000 bpd in the first half of 2016. Most of the increase is from exports to Asian markets, which accounted for 74 percent of the growth.
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