Africa Tops Mideast As US Crude Source

When it comes to supplying the U.S with oil, Africa is quietly trumping the Middle East.

U.S. crude oil imports from Africa topped supplies from the Middle East in 2006 for the first time in 21 years, government data show. As recently as 2001, U.S. imports from the Middle East topped African supplies by more than 10%, or 1.3 million barrels a day. Now, the fractional edge given to African crude oil suppliers in the world’s largest consumer of oil underscores a number of market changes and may grow wider in coming years.

cattlenetwork