Light crude

A discussion of oil imports and exports reveals a misunderstanding of the process. The US imports about 9 million barrels of oil per day but only recently was allowed to export oil. The law did allow the export of refined oil products which total about 4.5 million barrels per day. The question arises as to why the US is still importing any oil since fracking offers almost unlimited production. The oil from the US is called West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and is light and sweet. Light meaning low viscosity or thin and sweet means low sulfur. Imported oil is called Brent and is thicker and contains more sulfur. The refineries along the Gulf have long been set up to use imported oil and only in the past few years have been making the change to light crude. This will not only reduce dependency on imports but will help clean up the environment since sulfur is one of the main causes of acid rain. US crude contains more of the high value products like gasoline and jet fuel and US crude is less costly than imported oil. It is a win-win to replace imported oil with domestic oil and this process is underway.