London (Platts)--21May2007

Nigeria overtook Saudi Arabia in the US crude import rankings in March,
preliminary data from the US Energy Information Administration shows. The
African producer leaped from fifth place in February to third in March,
pushing the world's top exporter into fourth place, the data shows.
     Canada and Mexico held on to first and second places, with crude exports
to the US of 1.776 million b/d -- down 64,000 b/d from February -- and 1.621
million b/d -- 263,000 b/d up from February.
     But Saudi Arabia, with an average 1.231 million b/d in March, found
itself behind Nigeria with 1.29 million b/d. US crude imports from the kingdom
had dipped by 374,000 b/d in February to average 1.185 million b/d over that
month, recovering by just 46,000 b/d in March. Volumes from Nigeria were up
229,000 b/d from February's 1.061 million b/d.
     Venezuela took fifth place with 1.036 million b/d, down from February's
1.115 million b/d.
     The remaining countries on the list of top ten crude exporters to the US
all supplied volumes well below the million b/d level. In sixth place was
Angola with 696,000 b/d, up from 451,000 b/d in February. Iraq took seventh
place, boosting crude exports to the US to 523,000 b/d from 325,000 b/d in
February. Algeria was in eighth place, boosting volumes to 501,000 b/d in
March from 392,000 b/d the previous month. Kuwait and Brazil took ninth and
tenth place respectively, with 288,000 b/d -- up from 158,000 b/d -- and
209,000 b/d -- a doubling of February's 103,000 b/d.
     Libya took fourteenth place in the rankings with 105,000 b/d, up from
63,000 b/d in February.
     Total crude imports averaged 10.348 million b/d in March, a recovery of
1.299 million b/d from February, when US crude imports dropped sharply and
lower import volumes were recorded for most of the top suppliers.
     The data from the statistics arm of the US energy department shows that
the top five suppliers accounted for 67% of US crude imports in March, while
the top ten sources accounted for about 87%.
     Canada remained the largest exporter of both crude and products in March,
exporting 2.297 million b/d to the US, a slight decrease from February's 2.448
million b/d. Mexico was second biggest supplier of both crude and products
with 1.747 million b/d, up 240,000 b/d.