BREITBART NEWS; American tourists are being warned to exercise caution in a Latin American country, with The United States overtook Saudi Arabia to become the world’s largest exporter of crude oil over the past nine weeks, as Iran’s attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz choked off Middle Eastern oil shipments.

Bloomberg News reported Sunday that the United States shipped more than 250 million barrels of crude oil from its wells and storage tanks to overseas buyers over the past nine weeks, becoming a “lifeline for global consumers.”

The report cautioned that “record American exports also come with warnings that this supply cushion is rapidly being pushed to its limits.”

“Many energy experts are questioning how long shipments can be sustained at such levels. US domestic inventories are quickly depleting, with total oil and fuel stockpiles drawing down for four straight weeks to below historical averages. Meanwhile, America’s oil producers are struggling to keep up,” Bloomberg said.

The surge in exports has also raised retail gasoline prices in the United States, potentially causing political trouble for President Donald Trump, who touted U.S. export levels as “amazing” and a boost for the American economy.

“We have more oil production right now than at any time in history. And if you take a look at the ships, they’re all coming up to Texas, Louisiana, Alaska,” Trump gushed on Friday.

The Trump administration set something of a political tripwire for itself by pointing to the $5.00 per gallon prices that rocked American consumers after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Current average prices are around $4.40 per gallon, so the impact of pump prices on the November midterm elections could be determined by which way gasoline goes from here, and whether the Strait of Hormuz reopens soon.

Over the long term, the geopolitical impact of traditional Middle Eastern oil customers like Japan and Southeast Asia turning to the United States could be beneficial, if American producers can meet their demands. Industry analysts who spoke to Bloomberg noted that the Asian companies might be coming close to exhausting their stockpiles, triggering a surge in demand that low U.S. inventories would be hard-pressed to meet.