In March, Reuters reported that Saudi Arabia would be reducing it’s March exports of oil to the U.S. by 300,000 barrels per day (bpd).
In 2009, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, 39 refineries imported 973,704 bpd of oil from Saudi Arabia - accounting for 10% of US imports.
However in 2016, 18 refineries imported 1,033,890 bpd from Saudi Arabia - accounting for 13% of US imports.
From 2009-2016, 58 U.S. refineries imported Saudi oil. That’s compared to 224 U.S. refineries that imported any oil (including from Saudi Arabia) during the same time period.
While refinery imports of Saudi oil may have hit their peak in 2012, world imports have generally been on the decline since 2010.
World imports did have a slight uptick in 2016, which also coincided with a halt to the drop in Saudi imports.
As it turns out, not only have the number of refineries relying on Saudi oil dropped, so too have the number of states with Saudi-importing refineries.
In 2009, 13 states imported oil from Saudi Arabia, and in 2016 just 6 states.
Over the entire 2009-2016 time period, 15 states imported oil from Saudi Arabia.
While Saudi Arabia, over the 2009-2016 time period, was the number two origin of U.S. refinery imports, its 1,140,314 bpd of exports was nearly 44% of Canada’s 2,545,601 bpd.
Still, Saudi Arabia has overall been one of the top import origins among US refineries, ranking in at 2 (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2016) and 4 (2009 and 2010).
Ultimately, only 8 refineries relied on Saudi oil more than oil from the rest of the world combined from 2009-2016.
That’s compared to 117 refineries which relied on Canadian oil more than oil from the rest of the world combined.
In some individual years (2009, 2010, 2016), some refineries imported only Saudi oil.
However, as popular an origin as Saudi Arabia may be, 0 refineries had imports only from Saudi Arabia during the entirety of the 2009-2016 period. Compare that to 94 refineries that had imports only from Canada.
It will however take a few months before the refinery data regarding the reduction in Saudi exports is available. There is also some expectation that Sauid Arabia wants to continue with the recently agreed upon OPEC cuts, and so the number of U.S. refineries and states importing Saudi oil may continue to decline.