U.S. Seen Joining Biggest Oil Exporters If Ban Is Lifted
Higher fuel prices for all Americans and more money for the oil companies.
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will become one of the world’s largest oil exporters if domestic production continues to surge and policy makers lift a four-decade ban that keeps most crude from leaving the country, a government-sponsored study shows.
America would be capable of sending as much as 2.4 million barrels a day overseas in 2025 if federal policy makers were to eliminate restrictions on most crude exports, an analysis by Turner, Mason & Co. for the Energy Information Administration shows. That would make the U.S. the fourth-largest oil exporter, behind Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, based on 2013 EIA data. The report assumes domestic output rises by 7.2 million barrels a day from 2013.
The analysis is part of a series of studies the U.S. government is performing following a 71 percent surge in domestic oil production over the last four years. Drillers including Harold Hamm of Continental Resources Inc. and John Hess of Hess Corp. have been calling on the government to lift the ban on crude exports as they pump more light oil out of shale formations from North Dakota to Texas.
“We are already the world’s leading exporter of refined products,” John Auers, executive vice president at Dallas-based energy consultant Turner Mason, said by phone Tuesday. “Based on developments in the last few years in tight oil formations and deepwater, the U.S. has the resource base to be a big crude exporter as well.”
The report doesn’t account for potential changes in domestic crude output and prices because of the lifting of the U.S. export ban, nor does it consider competition abroad. U.S. benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude traded 1.6 percent higher at $61.39 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange at 1:54 p.m. Singapore time.
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http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/us-seen-joining-biggest-oil-exporters-if-ban-is-lifted/ar-BBjfkqt
