U.S. oil market offset Iraq impact in April--API: Crude imports up 6% compared to year ago

By Myra P. Saefong, <a href=cbs.marketwatch.com>CBS.MarketWatch.com Last Update: 10:00 AM ET May 14, 2003

WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- Crude-oil imports for April rose to their highest monthly level in almost two years, indicating that the nation's oil industry successfully offset the loss of oil from Iraq, the American Petroleum Institute said Wednesday.

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U.S. crude imports were up nearly 6 percent in April, at 9.7 million barrels per day on average, compared to the year-ago period.

So "it appears that the war in Iraq, which could not export oil during the fighting, did not create a negative impact on global supplies as feared, or at least the ability of American importers to secure adequate supplies," API said in a monthly report.

The API said preliminary data from the Energy Department show that the foreign oil came from increased shipments out of Saudi Arabia and Venezuela and that other major exporters included Canada and Mexico.

Total imports, which include petroleum products, reached 12.3 million barrels a day last month -- the highest in nearly two years, the API said.

About 1.1 million barrels per day of that was imported gasoline and blending components, equating to a 32 percent rise over a year ago. And at 13 percent, it represented the highest recorded monthly import share of the U.S. gasoline market as well as the biggest monthly imported product volume, according to the API.

By contrast, gasoline refined in the U.S. totaled 8.3 million barrels per day in April, down 3.3 percent from a year earlier.