By Shariq Khan
NEW YORK- US crude oil imports from Canada rose last week to the highest on record, data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed on Wednesday, ahead of incoming US president Donald Trump’s plans to levy a 25 percent tariff on Canadian imports.
Trump, who has long complained about Canada’s trade surplus with the US on Tuesday threatened to use economic force to turn Canada into the 51st US state. He previously said he will apply tariffs on imports from Canada and Mexico immediately after his inauguration on Jan. 20.
Canada has been the top source of US oil imports for many years, and supplied more than half of the total US crude imports in 2023. Many US oil refiners, especially in the Midwest, are geared specifically to run heavier crude oil grades sourced from Canada.
US crude oil imports from Canada rose by 689,000 barrels a day in the week ended Jan. 3 to 4.42 million barrels a day, the highest in records going back to June 2010, the EIA data showed. That was the biggest week-over-week jump in imports from Canada since the week ended July 12, 2024.
“Canada obviously matters a lot, and there’s a lot of two-way trade,” said Josh Young, chief investment officer at Houston, Texas-based investment firm Bison Interests.
Total US imports of crude oil fell by 498,000 bpd to 6.43 million bpd last week, the lowest in a month, EIA data showed.
The jump in imports from Canada could also be due to strong Canadian output, Kpler analyst Matt Smith said. He noted that Canadian onshore stockpiles have risen from a 4-year low in October, even as exports from the Westridge terminal at the Port of Vancouver, supplied by the Trans Mountain pipeline, have been steady.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s crude oil supply to China is set to decline in February from the month before, trade sources said on Thursday, after the kingdom hiked its prices and as OPEC+ extended production cuts in the first quarter.
State oil firm Saudi Aramco will ship about 43.5 million barrels to China in February, a tally of allocations to Chinese refiners showed, down from January’s 46 million barrels, a three-month high.
China’s state majors CNOOC and PetroChina and private refiner Hengli Petrochemical will be lifting less crude in February, while Saudi Aramco will increase its supply to Sinopec and Sinochem, they said.
Aramco declined to comment on its February allocation to China.
OPEC+, which pumps about half the world’s oil, decided in early December to push back the start of oil output rises by three months until April and extended the full unwinding of cuts by a year until the end of 2026 due to weak demand and booming production outside the group.
With tighter supply, Aramco has also increased official selling prices to Asia for the first time in three months. —Reuters
