The United States currently uses on the order of 20 million barrels of petroleum per day , which is a good working estimate when people ask how many barrels of oil the US uses daily.

Current daily usage

  • Recent data series show U.S. oil consumption around 19–20 million barrels per day in 2023–2024.
  • In everyday terms, you will often see this rounded and described as “about 20 million barrels per day ” of petroleum and petroleum products.

What “oil use” includes

  • These figures usually refer to petroleum and petroleum products , not just crude oil, so they include gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, heating oil, and other refined products.
  • A standard barrel is 42 U.S. gallons , so 20 million barrels per day is roughly 840 million gallons of petroleum products consumed each day.

Why the number changes

  • Consumption moves with the economy and behavior : commuting patterns, air travel, industrial output, and weather all affect how many barrels per day the U.S. uses.
  • Over time, efficiency gains and growth in electric vehicles can slow demand, while population and economic growth tend to push it up, so the daily figure fluctuates year to year around that ~20 million barrel level.

TL;DR: The best short answer to “how many barrels of oil does the US use a day?” is: about 20 million barrels of petroleum per day.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.