WASHINGTON, March 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. net trade volume of petroleum in 2018 reached the lowest level since 1967 while its gross petroleum trade reached an all-time high, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Wednesday.
The trade volume of petroleum in the United States includes crude oil, petroleum products, and natural gas plant liquids, according to EIA.
In 2018, U.S. net petroleum trade volume, which stands for imports minus exports, reached 2.3 million barrels per day, which was its lowest level since 1967, said EIA.
Meanwhile, U.S. gross petroleum trade, which stands for imports plus exports, reached an all-time high of 17.5 million barrels per day.
On the imports side, EIA said that most of the reduction in U.S. petroleum imports was of light, sweet crude oil, as those barrels were replaced by domestic production of a similar quality.
EIA's data also showed that on the exports side, U.S. crude oil exports increased while domestic production rose as well.
"U.S. crude oil exports have set annual record highs in each year since 2014," said EIA.
EIA expected these trends "to continue over the next several years." A recent EIA forecast also showed that the United States would become a net exporter of crude oil and petroleum products on a monthly basis in 2019 and on an annual basis in 2020.
"The result has been a growing role for the United States in world petroleum trade," said EIA.
