Las Vegas Sun

April 26, 2024

U.S. supplies some of its oil

With the price of gasoline at more than $3 a gallon, grumbling Americans are wondering where our oil is coming from - and where the dollars are going.

In February, the most recent month for which data are available from the U.S. Energy Information Agency, the nation's supply of crude was about 400 million barrels.

About a third of it was produced domestically; the balance was imported from elsewhere, mingled in pipelines, refined into gasoline, sold to gas stations and poured into our cars.

Almost half of our imported oil - 115 million barrels - came from countries in the Persian Gulf and North Africa. The United States does not import oil from Iran.

But the countries responsible for selling us the most oil were our neighbors - Mexico and Canada.

In February, the average price for a barrel of oil on the world market was $56.24. In February 2005, that price was $42.09. On Wednesday it was $72.20.

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