The
U.S. imported 878,000 barrels of Saudi crude a day in the first four weeks of
August, the least since 2009 with the Middle Eastern oil giant producer now
looking more and more towards Asia form where it can easily squeeze out
Nigeria’s growing foothold.
Saudi
Arabia’s Arab Light crude for sale in the U.S. averaged 48 cents a barrel less
than Light Louisiana Sweet, a Gulf Coast benchmark, in August, the narrowest
discount in data compiled by Bloomberg back to 1991.
After
years of keeping the price of crude sold to the U.S. low enough to maintain
market share, Saudi Arabia is losing ground as the shale boom leaves U.S.
refiners with ample supplies of inexpensive domestic oil.
Shale
drilling has boosted U.S. oil output to the highest level since
