Crude oil became the largest U.S. petroleum export, with 1.8 million barrels per day of exports in the first half of 2018, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Monday.

According to the EIA's latest U.S. petroleum products export report, U.S. crude oil exports increased by 787,000 barrels per day, or almost 80 percent, from the first half of 2017. And a new monthly record of 2.2 million barrels per day was set in June, 2018.

Asian countries, such as China, South Korea and India, became the largest market for U.S. crude oil exports. Europe was the second largest market, led by Italy, Britain and the Netherlands.

Following crude oil, hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGL) are the second largest petroleum export from the United States in the first half of 2018, with 1.6 million barrels per day. Destinations, such as Japan, South Korea, China, and India were the primary recipients of U.S. HGLs. In May, overall U.S. HGL exports set a new monthly record at 1.7 million barrels per day.

Regarding other petroleum products, such as distillate and motor gasoline, the United States exported 1.3 million barrels per day and 913,000 barrels per day in the first half of 2018, respectively.

The report said that the United States exported 7.3 million barrels per day of crude oil and petroleum products in the first half of 2018, the largest amount ever for the first six months of a year.