According to RBC, this follows from the reports of the Energy Information Administration of the United States Department of Energy (Energy Information Administration, EIA) for January - November last year, data for December has not yet been published.
It is noted that in October last year, the United States bought 136.5 million barrels of oil and fuel from Canada, 20.9 million barrels from Russia, 17 million barrels from Mexico, and 13.7 million barrels from Saudi Arabia.
In November, Mexico (21.2 million barrels) came in second place, squeezing Russia (19.2 million barrels).
In October 2019, The National Interest wrote that the U.S. sanctions policy against Venezuela and Iran, as well as the trade war with China, inadvertently led to the strengthening of Russia's position in the energy market. As noted, the former partners of Venezuela and Iran switched to Russian oil after the introduction of US sanctions against these countries.
The trade war between the USA and China, in turn, contributed to the fact that Russian energy companies were able to gain a foothold in the Chinese market.
Alexander Perov, the head of the special projects of the National Energy Security Fund, assessed the possible impact of US sanctions on other countries on increasing oil exports by Russia.