SK Lubricants Americas was the US’ largest base oils importer in March even as its volumes and share of the total fell.

The unit of South Korea’s SK Enmove saw its share of US imports account for more than 24pc of total US shipments in March, government data showed.

The share was down from almost 32pc of the total in February.

US base oils imports of 1.35mn bl (189,400t) in March fell from 1.44mn bl the previous month.

The volume included an unusually large share from South Korea and Canada.

The higher volumes boosted Petro-Canada America’s share of imports to more than 16pc of the March total, up from closer to 12pc in February.

Shell US Trading was the US’ third -largest importer with a share of more than 14pc of the total. Its supplies originated from the Mideast Gulf and South Korea.

Motiva Enterprises was the fourth-largest importer with close to 10pc of the total.

Penthol was the fifth-largest importer with less than 8pc of total imports.