MW The secret to lowering gas prices in the U.S.? Selling American oil overseas.
By Myra P. Saefong
The number of very large crude tankers filling up on U.S. oil has doubled, says Kpler
Double the usual number of empty very large crude carriers have been coming to the U.S. to load up on crude oil, Kpler said.
Believe it or not, one of the best ways the U.S. can help lower oil prices for Americans is to export its oil to other countries. And that's exactly what the industry has been doing, at record levels.
Oil exports from the U.S. have climbed to all-time highs. The type of crude exported by the U.S. is the light, sweet variety, which most American refineries are not built to effectively process. In other words, it's the type of oil the U.S., for the most part, doesn't need.
While the U.S. is the world's largest producer of oil, the U.S. refinery system is not configured to run on 100% light, sweet crude, said Simon Wong, portfolio manager covering energy at Gabelli Funds for the Gabelli Utility Trust GUT and the Gabelli Asset Fund GABAX. So it exports crude to other countries such as Europe and Asia, which are able to handle this grade of oil, he said.
This means the jump in U.S. exports is coming at the perfect time. A shortfall in crude supplies across the globe on the back of disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf has led to a 58% rise in benchmark global oil prices (BRN00) (BRNN26) since the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran began at the end of February, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Before the war, an estimated 20 million barrels per day of oil transited through the strait, and increasing oil exports from the U.S. have been helping to fill the gap.
U.S. oil exports climbed to 6.4 million barrels per day for the week that ended April 24, according to data from the Energy Information Administration, up by 1.64 million barrels per day from a week earlier to notch a record high, based on data going back to 1991.
U.S. exports of crude oil and oil products, meanwhile, totaled 14.2 million barrels per day for the week that ended April 24, according to the EIA. That's also a record high based on data going back to 1991.
It is important to keep in mind, however, that the headlines surrounding the U.S. exporting record amounts of oil are "a bit of a drama play" given that the country only relatively recently scrapped a 40-year ban on oil exports, which was in place from 1975 to 2015, said Gary Cunningham, director of market research at Tradition Energy.
Instead, he would say that the U.S. exports more oil than it has over roughly the past 10 years. At the same time, it also continues to import oil. Refineries in the U.S. buy crude from Canada and other regions to create the road fuels this country needs, Cunningham said. Canada primarily sells heavy, sour crude to the U.S., which is what U.S. refineries are built to process.
Read: The U.S. produces the most oil in the world. So why are gasoline prices so high?
The increases in crude prices have certainly had an impact on the prices of U.S. motor fuels, but U.S. oil exports are not to blame, Cunningham said.
Meanwhile, with the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries' spare production capacity "stranded behind a closed Strait of Hormuz," the world has found its "barrel of last resort," commodity analyst and geopolitical strategist Giacomo Prandelli wrote in his Merchant's News newsletter on Monday.
OPEC was the "central bank of oil" and Saudi Arabia was its "main lender," he said. In late 2025, the International Energy Agency put effective spare capacity among members of OPEC and its allies at more than 3 million barrels per day, with two-thirds of it sitting in Saudi Arabia and most of the rest in the U.A.E. and Iraq, he said.
The "the Iran war broke that," Prandelli said.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz, combined with the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports, has cut tanker shipments from roughly 20 million barrels per day in February to under 4 million per day in early April, he said.
And while the U.A.E. gave up its membership in OPEC and OPEC+ as of May 1, leading to expectations that it will raise oil production, most of that country's "theoretical upside barrels are useless while Hormuz is shut," he said.
So the world has turned to the U.S. to meet its demand for oil.
Empty VLCCs, short for very large crude carriers - vessels that can carry between 1.9 million and 2.2 million barrels of oil - have been flocking to U.S. ports to load up on U.S. oil, as the map above from Kpler shows.
Typically, there are fewer than 30 VLCCs headed to the U.S. on any given day, but currently, that number has about doubled and has consistently held at that level in the last month, said Matt Smith, Kpler's U.S. head analyst.
And since much of that U.S. oil can't be processed by U.S. refineries, the U.S. is managing to help ease high prices in its own way.
'Crude prices will be much higher if not for the U.S. exporting its excess supply.'Simon Wong, Gabelli Funds
"U.S. exports are supplying the world and helping alleviate the shortfall in global crude supply," said Gabelli Funds' Wong. "Crude prices will be much higher if not for the U.S. exporting its excess supply."
-Myra P. Saefong
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May 04, 2026 16:14 ET (20:14 GMT)
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