	Introduction

Sharp increases in U.S. oil exports in recent years has led to perceptions that these exports are not in the national interest, and have drawn Congressional attention. Oil exports from the United States, which averaged 1.4 million barrels daily (mbd) in 2007, and have increased to a daily average of 1.9 mbd during the period of January-September 2008. This represents roughly 10% of total daily consumption of oil products in the United States. A significant volume of these exports are of heavier oil products that U.S. markets cannot absorb. Exports of these products averaged, respectively, 40,000 b/d and 362,000 b/d annually during the first nine months of 2008. There would be no advantage to keeping these products in the United States as it would be costly or impractical to further refine them into products that could be used in the automotive or residential heating sectors. However, because oil is a commodity in a global market, a prohibition on U.S. exports would not lower crude oil prices. Exports of crude oil from Alaska ended in 2000. The only crude exported from the United States is an insignificant amount which does not originate from Alaska; it averaged 25,000 barrels per day (b/d) during the period of January-September 2008. Congress Lifts ANS Export Ban

The West Coast oil glut elicited persistent expressions of concern from oil producers who argued that the ban on the export of Alaskan oil production was distorting the market and causing a decline in the price of West Coast production. Bills introduced in the 104 th Congress to repeal the ban ( H.R. Residual fuel oil averaged less than 22%. During this period, approximately 35% of total U.S. oil exports went to Canada and Mexico in cross-border trades. Restricting U.S. oil exports would not lead to lower prices for products such as gasoline and diesel fuel. Additionally, prohibiting U.S. oil exports would compel customers for those exports to seek the supply no longer provided by the U.S. elsewhere. This would have no bearing on world demand for crude oil.
Concern about exports of United States crude oil, gasoline, diesel fuel and home heating oil periodically draws Congressional attention to the level of these exports, recently observed to increase from 1.4 million barrels daily in 2007, to nearly 1.9 mbd during January-September 2008. Some policymakers have suggested that prohibiting oil exports would lower prices. Legislation introduced in the 110th Congress (H.R. 6515, S. 2598) included provisions prohibiting some or all oil exports, or would have reimposed the ban on Alaskan oil exports; but no bills received major attention.
Virtually all U.S. oil exports are of refined products, and no crude is exported from the West Coast. A trickle of crude oil, in a range of 25,000 barrels per day during the first nine months of 2008, is sent to Canada from the upper Midwest. However, as Canada is the largest supplier of crude oil to the United States, providing nearly 1.9 mbd in 2008 (also through September), the U.S. crude sent to Canada is of limited significance.
The United States does export some gasoline to Canada and Mexico, and middle distillates to Latin America, but some of this product would not meet U.S. environmental standards. An additional roughly 40% of U.S. oil exports are of "heavier" products, such as residual fuel oil and petroleum coke, for which there is insufficient market in the United States. Because the market for oil is global, a prohibition on U.S. oil exports would have negligible effect on price. Such a restriction would only cause a rebalancing in the movement of petroleum because countries that had purchased U.S. oil products would need to find them from other suppliers. Restrictions on exports might, in fact, create inefficiencies in the movement of world oil supplies that could foster less optimal distribution of oil and possibly lead to higher prices in some markets.