The US Department of Commerce said Thursday that crude oil imports into the US in September fell 4.26%, or 416,000 b/d, to 9.338 million b/d, from September 2010.
The September 2011 import figures were 4.29%, or 419,000 b/d, lower than August.
Year-to-date through September, the US imported 9.216 million b/d of crude, down 2.6%, or 247,000 b/d, from the same period in 2010, Commerce said.
Trading sources pointed out that the relatively more expensive imports, due to the steeply inverted WTI-Brent spread, along with rising domestic production led to the lower crude oil imports in September.
"The wider WTI-Brent spread and increased domestic production, led refiners to lean more on Canadian and domestic crudes, which offered better returns than imported crudes," said a Gulf Coast refiner.
In September, the front-month WTI-ICE Brent spread was at about minus $24.00/b, while in September 2010 it was minus $2.91/b, according to Platts data.
In September, based on data extrapolated from the US Department of Energy's statistics, domestic US crude oil production was about 5.8 million b/d, up more than 200,000 b/d from September 2010.
