California Isn't Feeling U.S. Oil Boom as OPEC Dependence Grows
- State sourced a record 52% of its crude from overseas in 2015
- Falling in-state and Alaska production is driving imports
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The shale oil boom that cut U.S. crude imports by 32 percent in a decade isn’t being felt out west as California grows increasingly dependent on Middle East supplies.
California brought in a record 52 percent of its crude from abroad last year, up from just 9 percent 20 years earlier, according to California Energy Commission data. The state hasn’t yet released the specific countries that supplied that oil in 2015, but in 2014, about 58 percent came from Saudi Arabia and Iraq, the most recent data show.