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

Question

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

Answer 1

There are different oils, from light and sweet to heavy sour. The US has some of the best refineries for the heavy crude that is usually found overseas, so we import it, refine it, and ship a lot of the resulting products out. Since we import it, it’s counted as crude oil import, but we are a net exporter of petroleum products.