MARIANNA PÁRRAGA
EL UNIVERSAL

Venezuela provided the United States with an average of 1.31 million bpd of crude oil and byproducts in June, a drop of 202,000 bpd, or 13.2 percent, compared with May, reported the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistical arm of the US Department of Energy.

The results in June drove the 2007 cumulative average to 1.35 million bpd, that is, 129,000 bpd, or 8.9 percent lower than 1.48 million bpd supplied to the United States within the same term in 2006.
 
In this way, Venezuela went back to the fourth position in the ranking of major oil suppliers to the United States, following Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico. Each of these countries exported to the United States over 1.5 million bpd of crude oil and byproducts last June.

Venezuela was followed by Nigeria, Algeria, Iraq, Angola, the United Kingdom, Russia, Kuwait, Virgin Islands, Norway, Libya and Ecuador.

Plummeting byproducts
The drop recorded in the Venezuelan exports of hydrocarbons to the United States was due mainly to a 23.6-percent decline in byproducts, from 288,000 bpd in May to 220,000 bpd in June.

The fall is consistent with the downward trend so far this year. As a matter of fact, the mismatch between the average shipment from January to June 2007 and the same period in 2006 stands now at 76,000 bpd, or 23.3 percent.

As for the exports of crude oil, there was a drop by 134,000 bpd, for an average of 1.09 million bpd. The mean value so far this year amounts to 1.1 million bpd, or 53,000 below the supply during the same period last year, that is a 4.5-percent cut.

In the aggregate, the United States received in June 9.92 million bpd of crude oil, 368,000 bpd less than the amount recorded last May.

Translated by Conchita Delgado
cdelgado@eluniversal.com