Top 15 Countries Where America Gets Its Foreign Oil

July 25, 2011

Many Americans assume that the largest foreign suppliers of oil are from the Middle East.  However, America is actually more dependent on oil from its neighbors. Last year in 2010, Canada was the largest supplier of oil to the U.S., followed by Mexico. Of the top fifteen foreign oil suppliers, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait were the only Middle Eastern countries to make the list, taking third, eighth, and fifteenth place respectively.  Middle Eastern oil only accounted for nine to 11 percent of all oil used in the United States.  By contrast, oil from just Canada and Mexico accounted for 20 percent.  Since 2000, Saudi Arabia has fallen from second to third place, Iraq, from sixth to eighth place, and Kuwait, from tenth to fifteen place. If the trend continues, America will continue to become less dependent on foreign oil from the Middle East, and rely more on oil from Canada and Mexico and other less volatile areas of the world.