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KeepItReal

(7,769 posts)
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 06:58 PM Jun 2014

U.S. Ruling Loosens Four-Decade Ban On Oil Exports

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The Obama administration has quietly cleared the way for the first exports of unrefined American oil in four decades, allowing energy companies to chip away at the long-standing ban on selling U.S. crude overseas.

Federal officials have told two energy companies that they can legally export a kind of ultra-light oil that has become plentiful as drillers tap shale formations across the U.S. With relatively minimal processing, oil shipments could begin as early as August, according to one industry executive involved in the matter.

Using a process known as a private ruling, the U.S. Commerce Dept.'s Bureau of Industry and Security is allowing Pioneer Natural Resources Co. of Irving, Texas, and Enterprise Products Partners LP of Houston to export ultra-light oil known as condensate to foreign buyers who could turn it into gasoline, jet fuel and diesel.

...

Under current rules, companies can export refined fuel, such as gasoline and diesel, but not oil itself. The Administration's new approach, which hasn't been publicly announced, redefines some ultra-light oil as fuel after it has been minimally processed, making it eligible for sale abroad.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/news/article_email/u-s-ruling-would-allow-first-shipments-of-unrefined-oil-overseas-1403644494-lMyQjAxMTA0MDIwNDEyNDQyWj

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U.S. Ruling Loosens Four-Decade Ban On Oil Exports (Original Post) KeepItReal Jun 2014 OP
Watch our price at the pump increase even more... Historic NY Jun 2014 #1
How does that help us become energy independent? Omaha Steve Jun 2014 #2
Prices at the pump should actually decline as a result of this. Benton D Struckcheon Jun 2014 #3
Neither strategically nor environmentally sound. GeorgeGist Jun 2014 #4
"there's money to made so let's do it and forget the consequences." They_Live Jun 2014 #5
Money always trumps humanity in DC blkmusclmachine Jun 2014 #6

Historic NY

(37,449 posts)
1. Watch our price at the pump increase even more...
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 07:03 PM
Jun 2014

as they already make claims they can't refine enough product.

Omaha Steve

(98,870 posts)
2. How does that help us become energy independent?
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 07:15 PM
Jun 2014

I don't think we would export any energy, especially dirty energy.

Benton D Struckcheon

(2,347 posts)
3. Prices at the pump should actually decline as a result of this.
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 07:19 PM
Jun 2014

The real story here: the US doesn't have the refineries to handle this oil. It's too light.
From Reuters (How a US decision to allow oil exports could change the world’s energy balance):

That is because a problem with the US’s recent shale oil boom is that the type of crude being produced is extremely light—not, for the most part, as light as condensate, but too light for most American refineries to process. So producers have been worried what they will do once they saturate the refineries that can handle their light oil. As of now, they produce about 3 million barrels of light oil per day. If much of that volume were shipped abroad—which it could be if the Commerce Department allows it to be classified as condensate—it would surpass the exports of Iraq and, depending on other supply outages caused by geopolitics, seriously undermine global oil prices.


GeorgeGist

(25,293 posts)
4. Neither strategically nor environmentally sound.
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 07:47 PM
Jun 2014

But there's money to made so let's do it and forget the consequences.

They_Live

(3,221 posts)
5. "there's money to made so let's do it and forget the consequences."
Tue Jun 24, 2014, 10:02 PM
Jun 2014

this is the boot crushing our face forever.

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