The U.S. is now exporting crude oil to a record number of 31 countries, according to newly released data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Where it stands: U.S. oil exports are going all over the world, ranging from oil-rich United Arab Emirates to Australia, reaching 2.9 million barrels a day from essentially zero in 2015 before Congress lifted a 40-year-old ban on exporting crude oil.
The big picture: This is a remarkable turnaround fueled by America's booming oil and natural gas industry. Its impact on the average consumer is more muted because oil prices are traded on a global market and thus are fungible regardless.
- This export boom is likely keeping prices at the pump lower than they might have been absent all this new oil on the global markets, which is in turn keeping oil prices lower than otherwise.
What's next: EIA senior petroleum markets analyst Mason Hamilton (whose tweet tipped this milestone) tells Axios...
“With all the infrastructure planned to facilitate even greater volumes of U.S. crude oil exports we will likely soon find out how big of a market is out there for U.S. crude oil."
Go deeper ... A petro-tipping point: U.S. to surpass Saudi oil exports