Via Javier Blas in deccanherald.com: The US bought roughly 277,000 barrels a day of Saudi crude last year, down nearly 85% from a record high of 1.73 million barrels a day in 2003. To find lower imports, one must travel back to 1985, when flows briefly plunged as the kingdom cut output to try to push oil prices higher. To find several years of similarly low imports, one must go back all the way to the late 1960s. The collapse in Saudi-US oil flows will deepen further in 2025 as one of the five refineries that has been regularly importing the barrels closes, according to custom documents. Lyondellbasell NV is shuttering its Houston plant this quarter, leaving only four consistent clients for the kingdom’s oil in America. The remaining plants are the Motiva refinery near Houston, owned by the Saudis themselves via their state-owned oil company; a refinery run by Chevron Corp. near Los Angeles, and two plants owned by PBF Energy Inc. in New Jersey and Delaware. Motiva alone accounts for 40% of the Saudi crude the US imported last year. The reduced number of buyers compares with two decades ago, when 25 (and, at times, even more) refineries regularly processed Saudi crude.
