“Why does the US import so much oil when they are the world’s largest exporter of it?”

953 viewsEconomicsOther

I keep hearing over and over that the US imports all of its gasoline and raw petroleum that it used, however when you look at the numbers its the greatest exporter of oil ever. Wouldn’t it make more sense for the US to just take some that they produce and keep it to sell to its own consumers.

In: Economics

43 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Let’s imagine that crude oil are fruits, and refined petroleum products are juice. Than, there’s the juicer, which can only accept fruits of the right size and pulp consistancy.

A Semi-truck might run on apple juice. Which is great, because there are many apple trees in the USA, and many apple juicers in the country.

But cars run on Dragon Fruit. There is alot of Dragon Fruit juicers in the US, but there is very little Dragon Fruits growing, so the US imports from Saudi Arabia.

The US contains alot of oranges, but people don’t really care for oranges in the US. So the US export their oranges in Europe.

Now, think of all the different fruits, and the millions of applications of refined petroleum products and compare that to the petroleum global supply, its transformation processes, it’s by-products, it’s intermediary by-products, as well as the derivative markets, and the logistical supply chain, and follow the financial incentives of production, storage, transport, consumption and the geopolitical factors and understand that there is no single individual that really knows and controls the market and you can earn 500k a year as an oil consultant for Big Oil Corp.

You are viewing 1 out of 43 answers, click here to view all answers.