Among the torrent of information in the Energy Information Administration’s monthly data released late last week, a new milestone was reached.

For the first time since early 1991, US net imports of petroleum fell to less than 7 million b/d.

The net import figure for October, the data’s most recent month, was 6.833 million b/d. There are plenty of comparisons that number could be put up against, but the most notable is to contrast it to the all-time monthly high for US net imports: 13.354 million b/d, also recorded in an October, this one in 2005. So that’s getting close to an almost 50% drop from the record level of net imports.

Of course, those are one-off comparisons. What is a more interesting contrast is to take the 2005 average level of net imports, which came in at 12.55 million b/d, and wait two months to see what the 2012 average was, when all the data for the year will have been released. Through October, that average was 7.626 million b/d, for a decline of almost 40% from the highest annual average. If net imports clock in at 7 million b/d the next two months, the year average for 2012 will be more than 5 million b/d less than that of 2005.

via US net oil import dependence in October started with a six « The Barrel Blog.