Why are US exports of gasoline still on the rise?

Question

US oil is pumped out of the ground, refined and sent overseas while, as the price per barrel fell to $80 last month, domestic gasoline prices only fell a few cents.  And don't give me any garbage about market forces.  Most countries act to protect their strategic natural resources.  We're talking petroleum distillates (diesel) and now gasoline being shipped from Gulf Coast refineries while the price Americans pay seems to have nothing to do with global market pricing.
http://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=PET&s=MGFEXUS1&f=M
Read the monthly exports for 2010.  Any idea why December exports are 2.3 times those of January of the same year?

? · Accepted Answer

The oil is pumped and refined by private companies and sold on the international market.

The US government has no control over these deals so companies like Exxon are making record profits

You are right the pump price is no longer connected to oil prices or processing costs, it's simply pushed up by the oil companies until demand falls off and then they dial it back, we are being gamed for their profits.

Shawn Robin · Answer

Canada has the world's most oil - over 1 trillion barrels recoverable and over 2 trillion in reserves.
The US buys more oil from Canada than it gets from all Middle East nations combined.
Check your own link's information on imports for details.

Thanks to the North American free trade agreement, the US has guaranteed supply of the stuff.
Also thanks to NAFTA, the US gets all that Canadian oil at below-market prices.

With millions of barrels per day flowing over the Canada-US border, some of that cheap oil ends up being refined in the States and sold abroad at going rates to turn a profit.

Edit:

Nothing's out of kilter when surplus oil is sold abroad and pump prices are decided by international market trading, not by quantities of imports or exports.

US energy security is a myth like Columbus Day. (Vikings beat him to it by 500 years.)
Canada not only provides the US with an insane amount of oil, but Canadian-generated electricity powers over one-third of the continental United States.
That US dependency on Canada was carefully and deliberately cultivated, since Canada's never fully trusted the US to not get the harebrained idea to try invading again someday.
(Two failed US efforts to conquer Canada, in 1775 and again in 1812, was two too many.)
If the US didn't realize this at the time, well, it's too damn late to do anything about it now.
At any time of its choosing, Ottawa could crash the US national grid (and economy) just by cutting off energy exports and Washington knows it.

Canadian foreign ownership laws mean only nations that Canada wants to have access to Canada's oil patch get access to it.
And the Nexen deal is a thinly veiled reminder to Washington that it needs to improve bilateral relations with Canada or suffer the consequences.
Consequences it's already been warned of: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/canada-politics/united-states-becoming-less-relevant-canada-194152683.html

Canada has its own agenda, and America's only choice is to be part of it or excluded from it.
Link - http://www.thecanadvocate.com/2009/12/14/the-promise-of-a-canadian-superpower/
Link - http://www.theworld.org/2012/03/canada-energy-superpower/
Link - http://opinion.financialpost.com/2012/01/16/canda-a-global-energy-superpower/
Link - http://www.opencanada.org/foreign-exchange/canada-the-little-superpower-that-should-a-farewell-address-from-a-grateful-international-student/
It's a post-American World we're all living in, whether America realizes it yet or not:
Link - http://fareedzakaria.com/2008/05/12/the-rise-of-the-rest/
One that Canada plans to dominate in its own polite fashion, but dominate all the same.

Joseph the Second · Answer

Because China is Buying it Up- as FAST as we can Refine it...  :o

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Why are US exports of gasoline still on the rise?

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