WorldCity Business Magazine

South Florida gusher

by Mary Dempsey

Imports of refined petroleum products at Port Everglades have more than doubled in value in the first five months of the year to become South Florida’s new No. 1 import.

U.S. import-export statistics show that some $926 million-worth of refined petroleum products entered the port in the January to-May period, representing a 101 percent increase in the value of the imports compared to the same period in 2004. While the jump is largely due to something everyone sees at the pump higher gas prices the figure also represented a small increase in volume.

“From the numbers we’re seeing, demand has held up despite the higher prices. We’ve seen a modest increase in volume so far this fiscal year to date,” said Paul Stanton, the petroleum specialist at Port Everglades. He said the volume of petroleum imports are up about 4.5 percent.

“Roughly 25 percent [of the volume of cargo] entering Port Everglades is petroleum,” Stanton says, adding that some 99 percent of that is refined petroleum products. “It has been rising, but the trend has been one of increasing over a long period of time.”

South Florida’s increase in petroleum imports is 2.5 times greater than the overall increase in petroleum imports nationwide, according to WorldCity analysis of the most recent U.S. Census figures.

In South Florida, the biggest source of the increase appears to be imports from Russia, which were up more than 3,000 percent for the first five months of 2005. That bumps Russia to the No. 6 spot in the list of petroleum providers to South Florida, a big step up from last year’s No. 15 position. Nonetheless, a quarter of the $926 million in imports for the past year still originated in top-ranked Venezuela, followed by the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Aruba and the Bahamas.

When it comes to imports nationwide, however, Russia moved ahead of Venezuela to become the No. 2 source of gasoline and other refined petroleum products imported into the United States in the five months ending May 31, 2005. Only Canada shipped more petroleum products to the United States.

The jump in petroleum imports, as measured by value, at Port Everglades was enough to move it up a notch in the rankings of petroleum importers, to No. 7 in the country. The only other U.S. Customs District in the Top 10 to see more than a 100 percent jump was also in Florida. Tampa-Jacksonville ranked No. 8 through the first five months of 2005.

New York and Houston, the top two destinations for imported refined petroleum products, account for just under 40 percent of the $19.3 billion total that poured into the United States in the first five months of 2005.

Overall, refined petroleum products are the No. 4-ranked import into the United States, behind No. 1 crude oil, computers which previously had held the top spot and automobiles, according to WorldCity analysis. Clearly, the United States has a love affair with cars and the juice that makes cars run.

Houston and New Orleans were the leading import stops for the $66 billion in crude oil through the first five months, accounting for more than 45 percent of the total. Crude imports account for less than 1% of the petroleum products entering Port Everglades.

Petroleum products contribute one fifth of the total revenues at Port Everglade. The refined petroleum that comes into South Florida comes into Port Everglades and most is for consumption in the area. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, security at Port Everglades, until then largely open to the public, was enhanced primarily because of the volumes of highly combustible petroleum on port grounds.