I think some weeks ago I was on here talking to someone who was telling me how the US get's most of it's oil from Canada and how Canada has more oil and natural gas than the US, and that the US is dependent on Canada for this oil and natural gas. Well, I looked up some numbers and they told a different story, although I don't know all the facts and if it is true that the US is dependent on oil and natural gas from Canada, I would like to know where the stats are on this. Here's what I found from the cia factbook:

Canada:
Oil - production: 2.738 million bbl/day
Oil - consumption: 1.703 million bbl/day
Oil - exports: 2.008 million bbl/day
Oil - imports: 1.145 million bbl/day
Oil - proved reserves: 5.112 billion bbl
Natural gas - production: 186.8 billion cu m
Natural gas - consumption: 82.25 billion cu m
Natural gas - exports: 109 billion cu m
Natural gas - imports: 4.46 billion cu m
Natural gas - proved reserves: 1.691 trillion cu m

United States:
Oil - production: 8.054 million bbl/day
Oil - consumption: 19.65 million bbl/day
Oil - exports: NA
Oil - imports: NA
Oil - proved reserves: 22.45 billion bbl
Natural gas - production: 548.1 billion cu m
Natural gas - consumption: 640.9 billion cu m
Natural gas - exports: 11.16 billion cu m
Natural gas - imports: 114.1 billion cu m
Natural gas - proved reserves: 5.195 trillion cu m

Now, I know that the US has more in numbers mainly because they have more people, which in part explains the need for more oil, but I remember people here telling me that the US needs Canada because of all it's oil, and that Canada has just tons of oil compared to the US. I'm not trying to start a fight on who has more, I would just like to know where I can find out about how much oil Canada has, and how it is a whole lot more than the US. Those numbers seem to show a different story, but I'm no oil/trade expert.

   

I think you missunderstood, what people have been saying is that the %70 of the US oil imports comes from Canada.

   

It would be easier to find out if that is true if the US would list it's imports and exports.

   

I found this statistic...

USA oil
The USA imports about 55% of its oil needs.
Sources of U.S. Oil Imports (millions of barrels per day, 2001): Canada: 1.79 - Saudi Arabia: 1.66 - Venezuela: 1.54 - Mexico: 1.42 - Nigeria: .86 - Iraq: .78 - Norway: .33 - Angola: .32 - United Kingdom: .31 - Total: 11.62. (Source: Energy Information Administration).

Sources of U.S. Oil Imports (%, 2002): Saudi Arabia: 16.9% - Mexico: 15.1% - Canada: 15.0% - Venezuela: 14.4% - Iraq: 11.4% - Nigeria: 5.9.%.

only about 30% of the USA's oil imports came from Arab countries in 2002. Since USA oil imports are about 55% of USA oil consumption, only about 15% of USA's oil consumption is provided by Arab countries.

About 40% of oil in the USA is used to produce gasoline.

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On another thread there are a ton of links for site that back up what i said, not sure what the thread was called.

   

What can be concluded from your figures is that the U.S. is dependent upon imports for both oil and natural gas to meet domestic demand.

Canada is a net exporter of both. In particular, Canada is well positioned to serve the U.S. natural gas demand due to the relatively low cost of Canada's production and the low cost of pipeline transportation of gas (vs. liquid natural gas shipments). Only Mexico could compete with Canada in serving the U.S. market as cheaply, and Mexico is currently a net importer of natural gas because domestic production can't keep up with demand. At this stage, the U.S. is, in some ways, "dependent" on Canadian natural gas.

On the oil side, Canada's oil sands represent a vast reserve not fully included in the figures that you quoted. As technology improves, Canada should expect to export an increasing amount of oil, most of it sourced from the oil sands. This provides the U.S. with an additional source of oil for imports to meet its demands, but it is by no means dependent upon Canadian oil.

Of course, the flipside of all this is also applicable. That is, the Canadian oil and gas industries are, in large part, dependent upon exports to the U.S. So, it's a relationship of mutual benefit.

   

i don't think it is very mutual with figures like that. the consumption is 2.5 times the production. there must be a heck of a lot of importing to cover the difference. even if import comes from canada AND the oil dubya is stealing from iraq, as well as the import from the rest of the middle east (which the cia conveniently declines to share, right?), the drain plug is open and it will run out eventually. i'm guessing sooner than later, with how the bush war machine guzzles.

   

also, the us produces less oil than it did in the 70's.