Saudi Arabia, the world’s top oil exporter and OPEC’s largest producer, has influenced the oil market and oil flows since the middle of the 20th century. Shortly after the 21st century began, one of Saudi Arabia’s key customers made its first steps toward becoming one of the Kingdom’s main competitors on the global oil market: the United States began fracking for oil in the mid-2000s. By the end of the 2010s, the U.S. is now the world’s biggest crude oil producer, having surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia to claim the crown.
U.S. crude oil imports from all over the world have declined from their peak of 10.126 million bpd in 2005, while imports from Saudi Arabia have also been down in recent years, to average below 1 million bpd in 2017, for the first time since 2009, according to the latest EIA data. Meanwhile, U.S. production is breaking records, despite a slowdown in shale growth in recent months as a result of the 40-percent oil price slump in the fourth quarter of 2018.
In recent years, the Saudis have had stiff competition in what is now the world’s largest oil importing nation, China. In the past three years, Saudi Arabia has lost its status of China’s number-one supplier—to none other than its ally in the OPEC/non-OPEC production cut deal, Russia.