My man setty over at his blog settyblog (friends only, sorry) wrote this post today. After asking nicely he let me re-post it here. So here it is. Enjoy.
Where The Oil Comes From
U.S. government and news preoccupation with Venezuela isn't just because the country is ostensibly leftist. It's got much more to do with Venezuela's role as the U.S.'s second-most important oil supplier.
The U.S. had net imports of oil, coal refined products and electricity from 62 countries in 2009. This diversity conceals the concentration of suppliers.
Data provided by the U.S. Department of Energy also mask the importance of imports from Venezuela. This page, updated monthly, ignores both U.S. exports and (because the statistical series started in the 1940s, before the Virgin Islands was a major U.S. import point), treats the U.S. Virgin Islands as a foreign country. Since Venezuela provides two thirds of the crude for the Hovensa refinery on St. Croix, that takes many Venezuela barrels out of the ranking.
This U.S. Commerce Department data is the first place I've found that adds up U.S. net exports and imports of oil tallied by country and by dollar value, rather than by barrels. It turns out that the biggest net suppliers to the U.S. in 2009 were:
Canada $54.1 billion (25% of total)
Venezuela $26.4 billion (12%)
Saudi Arabia $21.5 billion (10%)
Nigeria $18.7 billion (9%)
Mexico $17.5 billion (8%)
Russia $13.1 billion (6%)
Algeria $10.6 billion (5%)
That's 75% of the oil imports coming from seven countries.
To understand the importance of a diversity of suppliers to a consumer like the United States, I highly recommend this documentary. In particular the part around 8:48.