From some time in the 1950s or early 1960s to a few years ago, the US consumed more oil than it produced. I am going to guess that for more than half of that time, it produced less than half of the oil it consumed.
Then US companies figured out how to profit from extracting from shale oil deposits (by fracking).
Right, now look at where "from" and "to" are in my sentence.
During and for years after WWII, the US was a major net exporter of oil, which is why I felt the need to specify the approximate start (some time in the 1950s or early 1960s) of the US's dependence on imported oil.
The strategic oil reserve doesn’t protect us from being a net oil importer. It’s always going to be a tiny fraction of 1% of our existing supplies, and a small percentage of our annual consumption.
It literally does nothing but subsidize US oil producers and mildly reduce price spikes for limited periods.
