Saudi Arabia exported an estimated 8.4 million bbl/d of petroleum liquids in 2008, the majority of which was crude oil. Asia, including Japan, South Korea, China, and India, now receives an estimated 50 percent of Saudi Arabia's crude oil exports, as well as the majority of its refined petroleum product and NLG exports. Japan remains the single largest importer of Saudi crude in Asia. In order to free up petroleum for export, Saudi Arabia continues to explore for natural gas resources to meet domestic consumption needs.

In 2008, Saudi Arabia exported an average of 1.53 million bbl/d of petroleum liquids to the United States, accounting for 12 percent of total U.S. petroleum imports. For this time period, Saudi Arabia ranked second after Canada as a petroleum exporter to the United States. In 2008, Japan imported an estimated 1.3 million bbl/d on average. In the same year, South Korea’s imports from Saudi increased by about 90,000 bbl/d to approximately 875,000 bbl/d.

Beginning in January 2010, Saudi Aramco will change the benchmark that it uses for pricing crude oil exports to the United States. Saudi Aramco had used the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price since 1994, but will switch to the Argus Sour Crude Index (ASCI), in part because the ASCI is viewed as being more representative of the U.S. Gulf Coast sour crude market.

The following series of graphs break out the percentage of exports by destination for the three main categories of oil exports:

Saudi Arabia has three primary oil export terminals:

These and a dozen other smaller terminals throughout the country, appear capable of exporting up to 14-15 million bbl/d of crude and refined products, 3-4 million bbl/d higher than Saudi Arabia’s current crude oil production capacity.

Saudi Aramco operates more than 9,000 miles of petroleum pipelines throughout the county, including two major pipelines:

Also built in the 1980s was a 236-mile multi-products line between Dhahran in the Eastern Province and Riyadh and a 220-mile smaller multi-product line between Riyadh and Qassim to the north.

Saudi Aramco does not operate any major functioning international pipelines. The Trans-Arabian Pipeline (Tapline) from Qaisumah to Sidon, Lebanon, completed in 1974, has been mothballed, in part, since 1984 (the portion to Jordan was closed in 1990, through there has been talk of reopening this portion). Also, a 1.65 million-bbl/d, 48-inch Iraqi Pipeline across Saudi Arabia (IPSA), which runs parallel to the Petroline from pump station #3 (there are 11 pumping stations along the Petroline) to the port of Mu'ajjiz, just south of Yanbu, was built in 1989, but closed indefinitely following the August 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. In June 2001, Saudi Arabia seized ownership of IPSA. Theoretically, IPSA could be used for Saudi oil transport to the Red Sea, although the Saudis have reported that the pipeline has been converted to carry gas as part of the Master Gas System.

The only functioning international crude pipeline system is a 60-year old complex of four small submarine pipelines carrying Arabian Light crude from the Abu Saafra and Dammam fields to Bahrain. The pipelines range from 207,000 to 250,000 bbl/d capacity. Reportedly, this aging pipeline will be decommissioned after the construction of the “New Arabia” pipeline, a 71-mile, 350,000-450,000-bbl/d capacity feed running between Abqaiq and Bahrain’s refinery at Sitra.

Saudi Aramco's shipping subsidiary Vela InternationalMarine Ltd. operates the sixth largest fleet of supertankers in the world, including 24 VLCCs (very large crude carriers), one Aframax class vessel, and four product tankers. In addition to tankers, Aramco owns or leases oil storage facilities around the world, in places like Rotterdam, Sidi Kerir (the Sumed pipeline terminal on Egypt's Mediterranean coast), South Korea, the Philippines, and the Caribbean.

The National Shipping Company of Saudi Arabia (NSCSA) is a public company, although the Public Investment Fund (PIF) of the Saudi government holds 28 percent, while the remaining 72 percent is publicly traded. The NSCSA fleet has a total of eight VLCCs, with plans to increase the fleet to 17 VLCCs.