Crude Oil Imports USA
The US Government Energy Information Administration (EIA) releases monthly statistics about the importation of crude oil into the United States.
The statistics make for some interesting reading. I bet most folks in the US don’t realize how important Canada and Mexico are to our oil importation needs with Saudi Arabia as a strong number three.
Even with all of the troubles in Iraq it is in the number six position. That may help to explain why George W Bush, oil man that he is, has such a strong interest in spreading freedom and democracy to that embattled nation.
Information taken from the EIA website follows:
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Top 15 Countries
April 2007 Import Highlights: Released on June 22, 2007
Monthly data on the origins of crude oil imports in April 2007 has been released and it shows that three countries have each exported more than 1.40 million barrels per day to the United States.
Including those countries, a total of four countries exported over 1.00 million barrels per day of crude oil to the United States (see table below). The top five exporting countries accounted for 68 percent of United States crude oil imports in April while the top ten sources accounted for approximately 88 percent of all U.S. crude oil imports.
The top sources of US crude oil imports for April were
Canada (1.909 million barrels per day),
Mexico (1.460 million barrels per day),
Saudi Arabia (1.458 million barrels per day),
Venezuela (1.182 million barrels per day),
and Nigeria (0.891 million barrels per day).
The rest of the top ten sources, in order, were
Iraq (0.562 million barrels per day),
Algeria (0.530 million barrels per day),
Angola (0.514 million barrels per day),
Russia (0.269 million barrels per day),
and Brazil (0.175 million barrels per day).
Total crude oil imports averaged 10.181 million barrels per day in April, which is a decrease of 0.167 million barrels per day from March 2007.
Canada remained the largest exporter of total petroleum in April, exporting 2.479 million barrels per day to the United States, which was an increase from last month (2.305 thousand barrels per day). The second largest exporter of total petroleum was Mexico with 1.572 million barrels per day.
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End of EIA Information
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The United States depends upon crude oil imports for about 60% of its crude oil needs. This ratio is unlikely to improve.
One bottleneck in the US that limits to some degree the refining of finished products, like gasoline, is refining capacity. Environmental concerns and approval delays have made the construction of new refineries so risky and expensive that the major oil companies just don’t build them.
At some point the US will be forced to develop a coherent energy policy. With global peak oil approaching this is an issue that needs urgent attention.
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