The Facts On U.S. Oil Exports

If you have listened to any of the talk radio shows for the past few weeks, you have heard several callers state that they would support drilling for our domestic oil, but only if the legislation also blocked all exporting of oil from the US.

It is clear that most of these callers are of the opinion that we are exporting large amounts of crude oil from Alaska to the Asian markets.

Nothing could be further from the truth. The U.S. exports very small amounts of crude. The major portion of the refined oil exports are those which Venezuela refines within our boarders and then ships back to itself.

Venezuela owns three CITGO refineries in the United States. These refineries process around 750,000 barrels of crude oil per day, 720,000 of which is distributed to more than 14,000 CITGO gas stations and other CITGO customers. The remaining 30,000 barrels are shipped back to Venezuela in the form of gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuels.

Mexico sells crude oil to the U.S. on the condition that we sell back to them, refined products like jet fuel, gasoline, diesel fuel, and some other products.

According Department of Energy about 30,000 barrels of U.S. crude left the country in last month of record and it all went to Canada which exported about 2.5 million barrels a day to the U.S.

The exports to Canada represent a small part of the output of Alaskan oil that can be cheaply shipped to nearby parts of Canada. While Canada exports oil to the relatively near by U.S. Refineries. All to save both nations a ton of shipping costs.

The oil market is global, it matters not where the oil came from as long as it gets to the consumer at the lowest possible cost.

Oil transporters ships, trains, or trucks all burn oil based fuels to get where they’re going. Higher fuel costs and distance all effect the actual cost of shipping. If makes since to exchange product, if the cost of shipping can be reduced.

One principle reason gasoline prices vary widely around the nation is the cost of shipping.. The biggest concentration of refineries is along the Gulf coast, where they usually have the lowest gasoline prices in the nation.

This explains the vast majority of the U.S. oil exports. There are also small amounts that are sold to our allies, such as Denmark.

Any legislation which banned all exporting of oil and/or oil products would only serve to increase the cost and reduce the supply.

You can find supporting documentation, more recent figures and far greater details at the Department of Energy website--www.DOE.gov

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