CNS News reports that “in 2021, which was President Joe Biden’s first year in office, the United States imported a record volume of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia, according to the preliminary numbers for 2021 published Monday by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.” Last year,
the United States imported a monthly average of 670,000 barrels per day of crude oil and petroleum products, according to the EIA’s preliminary numbers. Prior to 2021, according to historical numbers published in the EIA’s Monthly Energy Review, the largest volume of crude oil and petroleum products imported into the United States from Russia came in 2011. That year, the United States imported an average of 624,000 barrels per day of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia… The 670,000 barrels per day in Russian oil and petroleum products that the United States imported from Russia in 2021 was up from 540,000 barrels per day in 2020; 520,000 in 2019; and 375,000 in 2018.
So far, U.S. sanctions and the war with Ukraine have not stopped Russian oil imports to the United States:
When President Biden joined with allies last week in imposing economic sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine, Russia’s oil and gas exports were not targeted….Daleep Singh, Biden’s Deputy National Security Adviser for International Economics….explained the administration’s position. ‘To be clear: Our sanctions are not designed to cause any disruption to the current flow of energy from Russia to the world,’ said Singh.
