*The US continues to set monthly crude export records. Each month for November-January was over 2mn b/d, a figure never before breached, culminating in a record 2.132mn b/d in the latest data for January.

*For 2018 the US exported 1.621mn b/d to seaborne markets, more than twice the previous record of 795,000 b/d set a year earlier. Some 56% of 2018 exports went to Asia (see chart), as the US muscles into the Middle East’s key market. Volumes not surprisingly ramped up through 2018 with Q4 seeing quarterly records for both overall seaborne volumes (1.992mn b/d) and those headed for Asia (1.162mn b/d). (CONTINUED - 983 WORDS)