How many times have you seen this : “Because the U.S. dollar is the quoted currency in oil, a stronger dollar buys more oil per dollar and causes the price of oil in dollar terms to fall. The opposite is true when oil rises.”? This is called received wisdom, something so glaringly obvious that it doesn’t stand further scrutiny. Or does it? Currently, the U.S. produces just over 9.1 million barrels per day (b/pd) of crude oil, the majority of it WTI or equivalent. Of that, only a very small portion is exported and is consequently subject to currency fluctuations. According to Platts , “While the U.S. will likely continue to import significant volumes of crude in the foreseeable future, the import/export balance is likely to see only moderate increases on the export side from the current 600,000 b/d, given economics and logistical limitations.” Taking the Platts export number […]

Posted in: USA