High oil prices sending more money north

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Gas prices are at their highest in four years and some may be wondering where is all this money going?

According to some energy experts, a good amount of it is going to Canada. 

America's neighbor to the north leads the list of sources exporting crude oil to the United States.

Recent estimates from the Energy Information Administration in 2011 show that Canada sends nearly 3-million barrels a day down to the U.S.  That's in addition to what is imported from Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Nigeria.

According to a professor from the Columbia Business School, the price of refining and transporting the oil is usually at a fixed rate, the hike in the price comes from the source of the crude itself.

Also included in the report, the U.S. had to rely on foreign suppliers to bring in more than double what is produced here in crude on a daily basis.

In a break down of those numbers from December 2011, the U.S. relied on 12.6-million barrels from those sources. In assuming the price of a barrel a day is $118, that means roughly a billion dollars is pumped from the U.S. a day.