Westexas,
You said,
"If my math is correct, it looks like Saudi liquids consumption increased at 9.3% per year from the first half of 2006 to the first half of 2007."

Something I have been wondering....if the Saudi's extract crude oil, and then instead of shipping it out in bulk, use it in their own refineries and industries, and ship out the finished product, does that count toward "Saudi liquids consumption"?

I am not familair with how they count, or how we count them on that issue, any info will be appreciated....thanks....

RC

The EIA defines consumption as Total Liquids consumption, inclusive of refinery gains (although refinery gains don't yet appear to be a big factor in many exporting countries).

I've put it this way, ignoring refinery gains and transportation costs:

Assume that Export Land, EL, produced two mbpd, and shipped two mbpd to Import Land, IL, for refining. Each country consumed one mbpd. So, EL's net exports would be one mbpd and IL's net imports would be one mbpd.

If EL refined all of their oil, and exported one mbpd of product to IL, EL would still have net exports of one mbpd and IL would still have one mbpd of net imports.

WT, thanks for the clarification....I know that the U.S. has lately been importing gasoline stocks like crazy over and above the crude imports....it still amazes me that Europe for instance will export gasoline, as cheap as we sell it for at the pump! (?)

RC