Abhi Rajendran

The U.S.

is exporting more oil, but not because it's producing more oil.

Abhi Rajendran with the Center for Energy Studies at the Baker Institute says exports from the U.S.

have tempered the global supply shortage and actually kept prices relatively stable.

At this rate, analysts expect U.S.

inventories to reach record lows because last time they got this low in the mid-2000s, the U.S.

wasn't even close to exporting the millions of daily oil barrels it does now.

Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, says if we did stop exporting, oil companies would pretty much stop drilling.

Even if the Strait of Hormuz were to open today, the U.S.

would likely keep drawing down its stockpiles for months.

Greg Priddy, senior fellow with the Center for the National Interest, says for one thing, oil tankers are slow and a lot of them are in the wrong place.

And if the war keeps going until the end of the year?

Priddy says it's likely that U.S.

drivers will pay $5 per gallon by July.

And if the war continues, it could be $6 by the end of the summer.

I'm Kaylee Wells for Marketplace.

There is generally big inflow of money into alternative space.

Traditional debt markets were not providing those forms of financing.

Well, as this asset class kind of expanded, we didn't see many defaults.

When you start something, the problems are not imminent, right?