Obama in 2012: halve oil imports by 2020. In 2020 the US exported more oil than it imported
Barack Obama6 September 2012 · nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention
«If you choose this path, we can cut our oil imports in half by 2020 and support more than 600,000 new jobs in natural gas alone.»
Net imports fell from 11.1 million b/d in 2008 to −0.6 million in 2020: the country became a net petroleum exporter.
In 2008 imports exceeded exports by 11.1 million barrels a day; the promise was at most 5.6 million. Imports fell as shale oil output grew; in 2025 exports exceeded imports by 2.8 million.
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A presidential candidate promised at his party’s convention to cut US dependence on imported oil. The result went beyond the promise: the country came to export more oil and oil products than it imports.
First the words: who said it, when and where, verbatim (translations are ours). Answer Yes or No, or just open the answer: the stamp is the outcome, below it what came of it. On the chart the dark line is the fact year by year up to the deadline, the pale one after it; the blue dashed line is the promised number from the year of the words to the deadline, the light band the time the promise gave; the ring on the line is when it was said, the ring in the stamp’s colour the fact in the deadline year, beside it how far it landed from the goal. The numbers on the right are the scale.
- Barack Obama, nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention quote
«If you choose this path, we can cut our oil imports in half by 2020 and support more than 600,000 new jobs in natural gas alone.»
- What happened exceeded
Net imports fell from 11.1 million b/d in 2008 to −0.6 million in 2020: the country became a net petroleum exporter.
Quote: Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech of 6 September 2012 (American Presidency Project). Fact: US Energy Information Administration (EIA), Monthly Energy Review, table 3.1, annual average. Outcome: «came true» — the promised number reached by the deadline («about» within 5%), an event happened before the end of the year promised; «exceeded» — with room to spare; «nearly» — short by no more than 10%; «late» — reached, but after the deadline; «did not come true» — not reached; «came true, then undone» — reached, then reversed. The deadline is the end of the year named.
Half is counted from 2008, when Obama was first elected; from 2011 (about 8.4 million barrels a day) the target would also have been met. The main cause was shale output, which was growing regardless of this speech. Gross crude imports fell less.
A question for this picture
What changed the US oil balance more: government decisions or a new drilling technology?