As the United States sanctions Russian oil, because Russia is the bad guy, the admin is seeking oil from Saudi Arabia.
For the self and allies there is only: - Rule of law only until it comes in the way of Self interest -- in contention, self interest always trumps.
With this rule-set a lot of things make sense.
That said, without an absurdly massive investment in refineries, we would still be exporting a lot of it and importing much of what we actually refined.
As it is, we'll need to settle for exporting what we can't use very well and importing what we can make better use of, until we have sufficient battery capacity tied to grids and EVs are plentiful and cheap.
Feds actively restrict the domestic energy industry which increases demand for Saudi energy. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/24/biden-administration-pausing...
No real surprise, as Biden promised to restrict USA energy while campaigning. https://joebiden.com/9-key-elements-of-joe-bidens-plan-for-a...