The Texas Gulf Coast oil terminals sent abroad more crude than they received in April, the Energy Information Administration said this week. During that month, crude oil exports from the Houston-Galveston port district exceeded imports by 15,000 bpd. Over the next month, the advantage of exports over imports welled further, to an impressive 470,000 bpd.

whuut...what's so great about this? Texas exports more than it imports? Why are we exporting crude when we are still importing crude? Shouldn't we use our own oil first and then export any we have left over? It's like we're importing x and exporting x+y. Why?

I don't get it. Am I misunderstanding this?