According to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the US crude oil exports decreased by 3% in 2025, despite a 3% rise in its crude oil production (to a record of 13.6 mb/d) (US EIA press release, 10/03/2026). In 2025, the US exported 4 mb/d of crude oil, slightly less than in 2023 and 2024, representing the first annual decrease since 2021, due to a net import decrease of about 300 kb/d to the country’s top regional destinations of crude oil (Europe and the Asia and Oceania region, since 2018).
Exports to Europe decreased by 7%, likely due to an increased output form the OPEC, especially in the United Kingdom, where US crude oil imports fell by 35% (-100 kb/d) in 2025. In Asia and Oceania, exports decreased particularly in Singapore and China (-75% and -89%, respectively), where China represented the second-largest destination for crude oil exports by volume in 2023. Despite an overall decreasing trend in these regions, countries like the Netherlands and Japan increased their crude oil imports in 2025. In Africa, exports increased to Nigeria from 40 kb/d to 100 kb/d since the Dangote refinery began processing crude oil.
Since 2010, crude oil exports have generally increased along domestic production, domestic infrastructure, higher global demand for light, low-sulfur crude oils, and the removal of crude oil export restrictions in 2015. However, 2025 was an exception with more crude oil going to the US stock builds (such as the Strategic Petroleum Reserves (SPR), and to domestic refineries).
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