New York —
The United States produces so much oil that millions of barrels of crude are sent overseas every single day.
Those US barrels have become extremely valuable to the rest of the world since the war in the Middle East trapped nearly 1 billion barrels of oil in the Gulf. Asian and European nations have scrambled to replace the crude sidelined by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, causing demand for US oil exports to soar.
US oil exports spiked to all-time highs in late April. Energy inventories, which act as shock absorbers, continued to shrink rapidly last week, according to federal data released Wednesday.
This raises an obvious question: If the United States has enough oil to ship overseas, why not keep more crude, gasoline and jet fuel at home to drive down rapidly rising prices?
