[20180613]IN10915_美国原油出口和汽油零售价格.pdf

CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress INSIGHTINSIGHTi i U.S. Crude Oil Exports and Retail Gasoline Prices name redacted Specialist in Energy Policy name redacted Specialist in Energy Economics June 13, 2018 Since the beginning of 2018, average U.S. retail gasoline prices have risen approximately 18% and were nearly $3.00 per gallon at the end of May (see Figure 1). Over the same period, U.S. crude oil exportsfor which restrictions were repealed in December 2015have reached record levels. Average weekly export volumes from January to May 2018 have nearly doubled from average exports in all of 2017, to 1.7 million barrels per day (bpd). As a result, there has been congressional interest in understanding this tandem upward movement and the degree to which increasing crude oil exports might have contributed to rising gasoline prices. Numerous and interrelated domestic and global factors influence crude oil and petroleum product (e.g., gasoline) prices. Therefore, quantitatively determining the existence of a direct relationship between U.S. crude oil export volumes and prices paid by U.S. consumers for retail gasoline is challenging and is beyond the scope of thi