The United States has become the world's largest oil exporter, overtaking long-time market leaders Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Points of attention
- The United States has overtaken long-time market leaders Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world's largest oil exporter.
- Tensions with Iran and Russia, as well as disruptions in traditional oil supplies, have propelled the US to the top position in oil exports.
The US has overtaken Russia in the oil exporting market
The US's rise to the top is a striking turnaround for a country that for decades depended on oil from the Middle East and suffered from an oil embargo imposed by some OPEC members in 1973 in response to their support for Israel.
The situation with the US began to change after 2010, when its oil and gas production increased dramatically, first making the country the world's largest gas producer and then the world's largest oil producer.
As the US-Iran war disrupted Saudi oil exports since February 2026, and Russian oil exports were hit by Ukrainian drone attacks and sanctions imposed for the invasion of Ukraine, the US has become the world's leading oil exporter.
According to ship tracking service Vortexa, exports of crude oil and fuel from the United States rose to about 10.5 million barrels per day in May thanks to high production and the release of strategic reserves, making the United States the world's largest exporter for the third consecutive month.
According to Reuters, Russia's exports in May were 7 million barrels per day, while Vortexa put Saudi Arabia's exports at 5.9 million barrels per day. For comparison, in 2025, Saudi Arabia exported about 8.1 million barrels per day, while the United States exported 6.6 million barrels per day, and Russia exported about 5.8 million barrels per day.
The new dominance of the United States could weaken the pricing influence that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and its allies have historically had over oil markets. OPEC also suffered a blow in May when one of its largest members, the United Arab Emirates, withdrew after nearly 60 years of membership.
The status of the largest oil exporter will give Washington a powerful new leverage in negotiations with allies and competitors, in addition to its global military dominance and dominance in financial markets thanks to the US dollar's role as the world's reserve currency.
EU officials, who initially welcomed the US oil and gas boom as an alternative to supplies from Russia and the Middle East, have become more skeptical and warned of the risks of over-reliance on American companies. The warning coincided with a clash between the EU and the US administration over trade tariffs.
However, unlike Saudi Arabia and Russia, where governments fully or partially set production and export targets, the US oil boom depends on the decisions of private companies and is driven primarily by profit.
Since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine in 2022, European countries have relied heavily on supplies from the United States. The continent accounted for about 47% of US oil exports this year, compared to 37% in 2021. The US is currently the largest supplier of crude oil to Europe and the second largest supplier of distillates.
Asian countries, which previously bought most of their oil from the Middle East, are also increasingly relying on supplies from the U.S. In May, Asia accounted for about 46% of U.S. oil exports, up from about 37% a year earlier.
