Wednesday, Mar. 9, 2022
Did only 3% of US oil imports come from Russia in 2021?
In 2021, U.S. oil and petroleum-product imports from Russia rose 8%, spiking in the second half of the year after hurricanes along the Gulf Coast hampered domestic crude production. Imports totaled approximately 245 million barrels last year, compared to about 198 million barrels in 2020 and about 190 million barrels in 2019. Reuters reported that 30% of Russian imports were crude oil, with the remainder being refined products.
Russia was America's fourth-largest foreign source of oil in 2021 after Canada, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. Last year's sales were the highest since at least 1995—the furthest back U.S. Energy Information Administration data go.
President Biden has committed to releasing more than 90 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after banning Russian oil imports earlier this week in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- AP News Nations agree to release 60M barrels of oil amid Russian war
- Reuters Factbox: US imports of Russian oil and refined products
- US Energy Information Administration US total crude oil and products imports
- US Energy Information Administration U.S. Imports from Russia of Crude Oil and Petroleum Products (Thousand Barrels)
- Reuters Traders chase Russian oil to fill U.S. supply gap after Hurricane Ida
- White House Fact sheet: United States bans imports of Russian oil, liquefied natural gas and coal
About fact briefs
Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
See all fact briefs
Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
Learn MoreLatest Fact Briefs
Is there a scientific consensus that life begins at conception?
Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022
Do countries around the world subsidize fossil fuels?
Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022
Is the repeal of Roe v. Wade expected to increase the maternal death rate?
Wednesday, Jul. 27, 2022