The U.S. Is a Big Oil Importer Again Bloomberg By Matthew Philips In the three months since the U.S. lifted its 40-year ban on crude oil exports, a curious thing has happened. Rather than flooding global markets, U.S. crude shipments to foreign buyers have stalled. At the same time, imports into the U.S. jumped to a three-year high in what looks to be a reversal of a yearslong decline in the amount of foreign crude brought into the American market.
As of March 25, the four-week average of imports was running at 7.9 million barrels a day, 9.8 percent higher than the year before. ?That?s not a one-week blip,? says Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citi Futures. ?We?re seeing a consistent pattern.?
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