By Robert Bryce in the Energy Tribune:

…Most of the energy talking-heads on TV and elsewhere (T. Boone Pickens, Thomas Friedman, etc.) only talk about US oil imports. Few bother to look at the amount of oil leaving US ports. And fewer still bother to look at just how many trading partners the US has when it comes to oil and oil products.

Here are the facts: In 2007, when you count crude oil and all other oil products, the US imported oil from 90 different countries. Thus, the US maintains oil-based trade with nearly half of the countries on the planet. And while the neoconservatives love to talk about the dangers of the petrostates and repressive regimes, America continues to have oil-related trade with Syria, Algeria, Oman, Belarus, and Yemen – none of which are exactly bastions of Jeffersonian democracy.

Furthermore, in 2007, the US exported oil and oil products to customers in 73 countries. Indeed, over the past few years the US has become one of the world’s biggest exporters of refined products. In 1998, the US was exporting about 945,000 barrels of oil and refined oil products per day. By 2008, the US was exporting.

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