The U.S. will import more oil than it exports in 2022, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said on Friday.
"We forecast that the United States will continue to import more crude oil than it exports in 2022, reaching an estimated annual average of 3.9 million b/d," the EIA said in a statement on Friday. "However, we expect net imports to fall to 3.4 million b/d in 2023. We expect the United States to import less crude oil than it exports in 2023 because we expect domestic crude oil production will increase to an all-time high of 12.6 million b/d."
This marks the second consecutive year the U.S. will be a net importer of oil after a "historic shift" from the U.S. being a net exporter of oil in 2020, ZeroHedge reports:
"The total crude and petroleum products trade marked a historic shift in 2020 when the U.S. became a net petroleum exporter. On a monthly basis, it was in September 2019 when the United States exported more crude oil and petroleum products than it imported—the first month in which America was a net petroleum exporter since monthly records began in 1973, the EIA said at the end of 2019."
The U.S. has historically been a net importer of petroleum, the EIA said:
"During 2020, COVID-19 mitigation efforts caused a drop in oil demand within the United States and internationally. International petroleum prices decreased in response to less consumption, which diminished incentives for key petroleum-exporting countries to increase production. This shift allowed the United States to export more petroleum in 2020 than it had in the past."
