NEW YORK, May 5. /TASS/. The United States has exported more than 250 million barrels of oil in the past nine weeks to become the world’s largest oil exporter, having outstripped Saudi Arabia, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
The dramatic growth in American oil exports stems from the navigation problems in the Strait of Hormuz, the key route for oil supplies to global markets from the Middle East. Experts aren’t sure about how long oil exports can remain at such levels, as they are already at their upper limit, with infrastructure and transport issues making it impossible for the United States to ensure stable supplies of more oil from the Gulf of Mexico. The nominal upper limit of oil exports is said to be 10 million barrels a day, but traders polled by Bloomberg say that the actual cap may be around the current six million barrels a day, although it could reach seven million in the short-term perspective.
Meanwhile, according to the agency, the United States’ oil reserves have been rapidly depleting for the fourth week in a row amid surging fuel prices inside the country. Exports are growing at the expense of domestic reserves of oil and oil products, which have shrunk by 52 million barrels over this period. The downward tendency is expected to continue amid the situation in the Middle East, experts say.
The agency noted that oil production in the United States is almost at capacity. It has decreased by approximately 100,000 barrels a day since the onset of the operation in Iran. Despite the dramatic oil price hike, most companies are not ready to increase production as it is hard to anticipate right now how the market situation may develop further.