Comment by AnthonyMouse

Crude oil is the stuff that comes directly out of the ground. That wasn't an export ban on refined oil. The rule was a protectionist measure at the behest of US refineries. This is the money quote:

> We found that repealing the ban was associated with:

> ...

> Decreasing profit margins for petroleum refiners as they paid more for domestic crude oil relative to international prices

The US is a net exporter of oil. That doesn't mean they're not importing a ton of it and then exporting even more, e.g. because the Northeast is closer to Canada than Texas so New York uses a lot of oil from Canada and then the gulf states export to other countries.

Changing that in the long-term would raise prices (higher transportation costs, less competition) and changing it in the short-term (i.e. in immediate response to a foreign supply shock) would raise prices significantly because of short-term logistical issues. Also, to the extent that it lowered relative prices, the difference would come out of the profits of US oil companies and increase the profits of their foreign competitors as customers in the EU and other places experience even more of a shortage. "Piss off your allies and domestic industry to the benefit of foreign adversaries" is usually not a winning strategy.

Meanwhile those sorts of export bans will leak like a sieve anyway. Even without formally violating them, you'll see things like energy-intensive industries moving production to the place with cheaper energy until the cross-border price stabilizes, which means higher prices outside the US would lead to higher demand (and thus higher prices) within the US.

It's a global commodity market and you don't even want it to be otherwise.