“I wasn’t aware the US is the third leading producer. Why on God’s green earth are we importing oil?”
There is oil and then there is oil. Not all oil is the same. Some oil has lots of diesel in it, some doesn’t.
But be that as it may be, your question is answered pretty simply:
The US burns 20 million barrels per day. Every Single Day we consume 20 million barrels (a barrel is 42 gallons).
We “produce” (no one “produces” oil, it is extracted not produced) about 9.5 mbpd.
And that is the answer to your question.
Thank you. But, my guess is that if the price per bbl were appropriate we could extract more than what we use per day.