What Percentage of US Oil Consumption Is Imported From The Persian Gulf?

[NYFelon]

Up Front Disclaimer: The data used for compilation/calculation are 2010 numbers. It pertains only to crude oil, and not refined distillates, though those numbers are not much greater

I've done some rudimentary calculations to determine an answer. I'm curious to see how aware US Consumers are of just how much crude oil the US imports from the Persian Gulf. More importantly, what percentage of total US oil consumption originates from the Persian Gulf. Keep in mind this data was collated based not on OPEC, but specifically Middle Eastern or as it's more derogatorily known "Arab" Oil.

I'll post up links to the data and the numbers I arrived at later in the thread. For now, I'd just like to see the average opinion

 

[ZombieApocolypse]

Based stricly on a guess im going 5-10% ... I remember hearing last year we supply 50% of our own.

My question is .... isnt some of this oil being drilled on public land, and shouldnt we get some of that money from said oil? For some reason i remember hearing that also

 

[Lucas156]

I remember hearing that about 60% comes from Canada or Alaska. Can't recall which and don't know why it stuck in my mind.

 

[dross]

It doesn't really matter where it comes from, it's fungible. It's whatever percentage the Arab's produce. All the oil goes in one big tank and we buy it for one price. If we produce more ourselves, that's less that we'll buy from other people. If the Canadians and Mexicans produce more, we'll buy more from them.

We will always buy some from the Arabs as well as every other country who produces a single drop of oil.

 

[actaeon277]

20% of the WORLD's supply goes thru the Gulf. So, if they shut it off, eveyone else will be buying from the same sources we do. Constant Demand with Decreased Supply. Anybody know what that means?

 

[dross]

20% of the WORLD's supply goes thru the Gulf. So, if they shut it off, eveyone else will be buying from the same sources we do. Constant Demand with Decreased Supply. Anybody know what that means?

I do, I do! Ooo, ooo, pick me! Pick me!!

 

[NYFelon]

It doesn't really matter where it comes from, it's fungible. It's whatever percentage the Arab's produce. All the oil goes in one big tank and we buy it for one price. If we produce more ourselves, that's less that we'll buy from other people. If the Canadians and Mexicans produce more, we'll buy more from them.

We will always buy some from the Arabs as well as every other country who produces a single drop of oil.

While this is true, it's not quite the purpose behind this thread. How often do you hear about our dependence on arab oil, and its impact upon our foreign policy. Granted, the average Ingo member I've come across is much more well-informed than Joe Blow. This is just one of those things that sticks in my craw. People always talk about how we are beholden to Persian Gulf oil, and it's nonsense. We could easily replace their share of our consumption by distributing the net percentage of our supply they account for across other producers.

If anyone is beholden to Arab oil interests, it's Western Europe.

I'm disappointed in the lack of participation, but c'est la vie. Data incoming shortly.

 

[longbarrel]

Venezuela, Canada, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia. Three of the four have been on the list since 2002. One came out of nowhere in the last 4 years? Care to guess?

 

[dross]

While this is true, it's not quite the purpose behind this thread. How often do you hear about our dependence on arab oil, and its impact upon our foreign policy. Granted, the average Ingo member I've come across is much more well-informed than Joe Blow. This is just one of those things that sticks in my craw. People always talk about how we are beholden to Persian Gulf oil, and it's nonsense. We could easily replace their share of our consumption by distributing the net percentage of our supply they account for across other producers.

If anyone is beholden to Arab oil interests, it's Western Europe.

I'm disappointed in the lack of participation, but c'est la vie. Data incoming shortly.

But it is relevant to your thread. It's not like we could stop using their oil if we wanted to. It's all about percentage of production. Even if we somehow segregated their oil, they would still sell it somewhere else and then those people wouldn't need ours. The price will be consistent because if it isn't they'll buy it somewhere else.

All nations buy the same percentage of Arab oil as everyone else. They buy whatever percentage of Arab oil is produced, just like everyone else.

 

[dross]

Venezuela, Canada, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia. Three of the four have been on the list since 2002. One came out of nowhere in the last 4 years? Care to guess?

I do, I do! Ooo, ooo, pick me! Pick me!!

 

[Kagnew]

It doesn't really matter where it comes from, it's fungible. It's whatever percentage the Arab's produce. All the oil goes in one big tank and we buy it for one price. If we produce more ourselves, that's less that we'll buy from other people. If the Canadians and Mexicans produce more, we'll buy more from them.

We will always buy some from the Arabs as well as every other country who produces a single drop of oil.

Exactly what I was going to say.

And it's the same way with refined product. As long as gasoline meets certain minimums on octane and detergency (I think the specs are referred to as "Colonial 64") it, too, is considered a fungible commodity. Shell might put X gallons into one end of the pipeline, but the same amount which they take out at the other end might have been put in by BP. The differences between brands (slight though they may be) come in when a transport is loaded at the rack. Major terminals maintain a stock of different companies' additives. If a load is going to a Marathon station, they throw in Marathon's additive package, etc. There was a time, long, long ago, when crude from fields owned or leased by Texaco was refined in a Texaco refinery. The product was transported to bulk plants in Texaco tank cars, and delivered in Texaco tank wagons. But that, as I said, was long ago and far away.

 

[Yeah]

While this is true, it's not quite the purpose behind this thread.

How on earth is that true? All cried oil trades for the same price?

Why then is there a Brent index, and a WTI index, and a ASCI index, etc etc? At minimum, to give people who are out of there depth the option to post WTI correlated gasoline price rants all over the internet...but might there be some other reason?

 

[Kagnew]

How on earth is that true? All cried oil trades for the same price?

Why then is there a Brent index, and a WTI index, and a ASCI index, etc etc? At minimum, to give people who are out of there depth the option to post WTI correlated gasoline price rants all over the internet...but might there be some other reason?

Might be wrong, but I think that "the price of crude oil" is calculated in terms of the price of west Texas intermediate, is it not? Obviously, a light sweet crude is going to sell for more than a dark sour crude.

 

[BumpShadow]

How on earth is that true? All cried oil trades for the same price?

Why then is there a Brent index, and a WTI index, and a ASCI index, etc etc? At minimum, to give people who are out of there depth the option to post WTI correlated gasoline price rants all over the internet...but might there be some other reason?

Those are future oil price index's, are they not?

 

[BumpShadow]

Might be wrong, but I think that "the price of crude oil" is calculated in terms of the price of west Texas intermediate, is it not? Obviously, a light sweet crude is going to sell for more than a dark sour crude.

I believe your thinking of Cushing, Oklahoma.

 

[dross]

Light sweet crude? How is my technique for approaching women relevant to this thread?

 

[NYFelon]

In 2010, the US consumed 19.15 million bbls of oil daily. This comes out to be 6,989,750,000 bbls annually. Persian gulf oil constituted 618,470,000 barrels, or roughly 8.85% of total US annual consumption. By contrast, 45% of EU oil consumption is Middle Eastern in origin. in 2009 the EU consumed approximately 13.6 million bbls daily, or 4,974,950,000 bbls annual. This means that of their consumption, using the 45% factor, the EU consumed 2,238,727,500 bbls of Arab oil in 2009. That's slightly more than 3.5 times the amount of oil the US consumed that was of Middle eastern origin, which is in direct opposition to what you have stated dross. We don't all use the same percentage of Middle Eastern Oil.

US Total oil consumption for 2010
US oil imports by country of origin
Annual oil consumption of oil in the EU
Source for percentage of EU oil which originated from Middle Eastern producers

 

[dross]

In 2010, the US consumed 19.15 million bbls of oil daily. This comes out to be 6,989,750,000 bbls annually. Persian gulf oil constituted 618,470,000 barrels, or roughly 8.85% of total US annual consumption. By contrast, 45% of EU oil consumption is Middle Eastern in origin. in 2009 the EU consumed approximately 13.6 million bbls daily, or 4,974,950,000 bbls annual. This means that of their consumption, using the 45% factor, the EU consumed 2,238,727,500 bbls of Arab oil in 2009. That's slightly more than 3.5 times the amount of oil the US consumed that was of Middle eastern origin, which is in direct opposition to what you have stated dross. We don't all use the same percentage of Middle Eastern Oil.

US Total oil consumption for 2010
US oil imports by country of origin
Annual oil consumption of oil in the EU
Source for percentage of EU oil which originated from Middle Eastern producers

I admit my knowledge is not perfect in this area. Isn't it all the same price? If it is, my argument holds, regardless of where it actually came from. If it's not, I stand corrected.

Transport costs are cheaper if it travels the least distance to a refinery, but if the oil is the same price, the actual oil itself is irrelevant. Economics - it's like gravity, you can't cheat it, it only looks like you do.

 

[NYFelon]

No, no. You're 100% accurate about the price-point issue. The logic there is 100% sound. I'm sort of a stickler for details, and like I said, the conventional wisdom is that the US buys ungodly amounts of oil from the Middle East. That simply isn't true.

 

[dross]

No, no. You're 100% accurate about the price-point issue. The logic there is 100% sound. I'm sort of a stickler for details, and like I said, the conventional wisdom is that the US buys ungodly amounts of oil from the Middle East. That simply isn't true.

Well, again, for all practical purposes, everyone buys the same percentages from everyone. If the middle east shut down, our oil cost would go up and we'd have shortages. The more we produce, the less that's true.

I understand what you're trying to say, it may not be that much in terms of percentage, but in terms of effect it's huge.