United States imports of oil have risen by about 50 percent since 1980. In the early 1980s, the U.S. imported about 40 percent of the oil it consumed; by 2009, that amount had risen to almost 60 percent. As of 2007, the U.S. was consuming more than 20.6 million barrels of oil per day — more than double the amount consumed by China, the next-biggest consumer of oil.
More facts on oil consumption:
- The U.S. state that consumes the most barrels of oil per year is Texas, which uses more than a billion barrels of oil annually. That's more than the next two top oil consuming states — California and Florida — combined.
- The top oil-producing nations are Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United States, each of which produce between 8 million and 10 million barrels of oil per day.
- The U.S. consumes more barrels of oil per day than all of Europe.