America’s dependence on OPEC oil continued in May even as the global price of oil fell. According to the Energy Information Agency of the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. imported 335 million barrels of oil which accounted for 58 percent of the oil we used.
At an average cost of $110.34 per barrel we spent about $37 billion. If oil prices and imports hold steady near their current levels, the US will be on pace to import more than 4 billion barrels of oil this year at a cost of $450 billion.
Since President Obama called for a reduction in our dependence on foreign oil in his State of the Union Address, we have imported 1.45 billion barrels of oil at a cost of $173.5 billion.