The kingdom has been focusing increasingly on oil markets in Asia, which is expected to account for the bulk of future oil demand. The Aramco figures show that Asian countries accounted for 55.7% of crude exports in 2009, up from 52.7% in 2008.

Exports to Europe, including the Mediterranean, accounted for 9.8% of total Saudi crude exports last year, down from 12.2% in 2009.

Saudi crude exports to the US have fallen dramatically over the past year while those to China have soared. In 2009, Saudi Arabia supplied an average 844,750 b/d to the Asian giant, 15.4% more than the 2008 volume and 16.4% of China's total crude imports.

In April this year, a senior Saudi oil official said the kingdom's increasing focus on Asia as the main market for its crude was related entirely to "market realities" and had no political foundation.

Ibrahim al-Muhanna, a Saudi oil ministry adviser, said Saudi oil was increasingly moving to Asia, where demand is growing, and away from the US and Europe where demand is declining.

'PURELY BUSINESS'

"The shift of market share of Saudi oil to Asia is purely a business and market issue, no more and no less," he told Petrostrategies' Annual Oil Summit in Paris.

"I hope that anyone tempted to project political motivations into this trend will recognize that what is taking place is merely a logistical adjustment to market realities."

At the same time, he said, Saudi Arabia is "working to maintain strong relationships with our traditional customers in America and Europe."

The following week, Saudi oil minister Ali Naimi stressed the importance of the oil trade relationship between his country and the US.

"For decades, Saudi Arabia has ranked in the top three main foreign oil suppliers to the United States, and the US, on the other hand, maintained its role as trading partner and the main foreign provider of direct investment to the kingdom. We expect such relations to flourish in the coming years," he told a US-Saudi business forum in Chicago.

--Margaret McQuaile, margaret_mcquaile@platts.com