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Conspiracy theorist frequently claim FDR instituted the oil embargo against Japan in order to provoke war. The fact of the matter is that the Republicans in Congress demanded that embargo.

When The Export Control Act of July 2, 1940 was signed and authorized by FDR, it was basically in the interest of our own national defense, to prohibit or curtail the export of basic war materials to (all) aggressor nations. Under that act, licenses were refused for the export to Japan and Germany of aviation gasoline (not crude oil) and most types of machine tools, to be implemented one month later, in August 1940.

America started limited embargoes on limited items as Japanese aggression increased on the Asian mainland. It started with refined aviation gasoline (Aug.,1940), when that didn't get their attention it was upped to exclude scrap steel and iron (Oct., 1940), when that still had no effect their assets were frozen in the US, but they could still purchase crude oil and take it home for refining.

It wasn't until all of those economic measures, sanctions, and warning had no effect was a total embargo on crude oil imposed on July 26th of ’41, a full year after the first embargoes were imposed. Those ships in harbor, bound for Japan which were loading with crude were allowed to complete the loading and left for Japan. It wasn't like America "dropped this embargo" on the Japanese out of the blue

The Neutrality Act of 1939 (November 4) retained the "cash and carry" formula devised by Bernard Baruch for the 1937 Act. This meant that belligerents were permitted to buy American goods including arms and strategic materials, but they had to pay cash (gold transfer) and to transport the goods in their own hulls, or at least in ships flying their flags.