The current ban on exports of U.S. crude oil was enacted as part of the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act, and was justified on the basis of two fallacies. First: That the 1973 Arab OPEC oil “embargo” was the cause of higher oil prices and the gasoline lines and other market disruptions experienced in the early 1970s. Second: That a ban on exports of crude oil would insulate the U.S. economy from the effects of international supply disruptions.

The central analytic principle to bear in mind is straightforward: Abstracting from such minor factors as transport costs, there can be only one price for oil in the world market, because a higher price in one region would attract sellers, reducing the price there so as to equalize it with that everywhere else.

And that is why the 1973 embargo, directed at the U.S., the Netherlands and some other allies of Israel, had no effect at all. Since there can be only one price in the world oil market, that attempt to impose a higher price on certain nations did not succeed; market forces resulted in the reallocation of oil so that prices were equal everywhere. The U.S. faced the same higher prices as everyone else.

You can finish reading the article at The Hill.