The United States briefly returned to net importer status for petroleum earlier this year

The United States imported more crude oil and petroleum products than it exported in May and June of this year, briefly reversing the country's 15-year-long trend toward becoming a net petroleum exporter. After being a net petroleum exporter for seven consecutive months from October 2019 through April 2020, the United States became a net importer, and U.S. net petroleum imports averaged 939,000 barrels per day (b/d) in May and 675,000 b/d in June. On an annual basis, U.S. net imports of petroleum have fallen from a high of 12.5 million b/d in 2005 to 0.7 million b/d in 2019. More »