The US actually is multiple oil markets. The east coast is its own market, with limited shipments via too few pipelines, some rail, some truck, from the rest o

The US actually is multiple oil markets. The east coast is its own market, with limited shipments via too few pipelines, some rail, some truck, from the rest of the US. It's illegal to use a non-US flagged tanker to ship from Texas to the east coast, and there are no US flagged tankers to do so. The refineries on the east coast are built to refine Saudi light crude oil. So, the east coast is dependent on middle eastern crude oil.