Trump Faces Growing Pressure to Restrict U.S. Oil Exports
Russia Rebuilds Nuclear Workforce at Iran’s Bushehr Plant Declining energy affordability could trigger… Kurt Cobb is a freelance writer and communications consultant who writes frequently about energy and environment.
His work has also appeared in The Christian Science… The U.S.
News reports claimed that the Trump administration may be considering an export ban on crude oil and refined petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel in order to bring those prices down—prices which have been elevated considerably by the reduction of oil supplies worldwide in the wake of the Iran war.
But a Trump administration spokesperson said the administration has no plans to ban exports of oil or natural gas products.
It's important to note that there is an old adage in Washington, D.C.: "Nothing is true until it is officially denied." The administration has probably discussed such a ban.
Whether it will implement one is the question.
Withexports of distillate fuels(which include diesel and fuel oil) hitting the highest on record andgasoline exportsbouncing between about 750,000 and 1 million barrels per day, American consumers may be wondering why the administration doesn't act now.
The answer is complex, as I detailed in my piece in May entitled"Will the U.
curtail oil exports as fuel prices rise?"But the short version is two-fold: To implement an export ban, the president would have to declare an emergency.
It's not hard to see how the closing of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran would be seen as an emergency.
But it's not clear how much such a ban would lower prices.
It depends on whether such a ban included refined products such as gasoline and diesel and not just crude oil.
| Product | Price | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Brent Crude | $102.14/bbl | +0.34% |
| WTI Crude | $96.90/bbl | +0.21% |
| EN590 Diesel | $846/MT | +0.18% |
| Jet Fuel A-1 | $1090/MT | +0.55% |
| Mazut M100 | $450/MT | -0.15% |
| Bitumen 60/70 | $470/MT | +0.08% |
| Sulphur Gran 99.5% | $470/MT | -0.44% |
| Urea 46% Gran | $650/MT | +1.12% |
| NPK 16-16-16 | $460/MT | -0.28% |
| Nat Gas TTF | $15.42/MMBtu | +0.92% |
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