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The ink is barely dry on legislation to lift a 40-year-old ban on exporting U.S. crude and energy companies already are jockeying to ship American oil overseas. Two tankers filled with freely traded U.S. oil have pulled out of Texas ports in the past two weeks, with more shipments expected. The first American oil sales abroad are flowing to Europe but, in the longer term, Latin America and Asia could become natural markets, according to industry experts. U.S. oil sales to foreign buyers have been quick to start after President Barack Obama signed the bill that abolished the crude export...

**SNIP** "These refineries provide transportation fuels and home heating oil for hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of American families". Upton wrote, lifting the ban may spur investment to expand the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port to allow for imports and exports, which would create "a two-way trading hub" that could shift global focus to Louisiana's Gulf Coast, making it a "global hub" for the industry. There's consensus on at least one thing - most analysts agree we probably won't feel the effects of the end of the ban for a while, not even in the next year. The U.S. produced...

The lifting of a decades-old ban on crude oil exports primes Corpus Christi to become a key oil hub in the coming years, but it also dampens interest in expensive projects to export condensate, an ultralight oil not subject to the long-standing restriction. In the short term, the South Texas port city probably will see a drop-off in announcements for new condensate splitters and stabilizers -- processing equipment necessary to prepare condensate for export under previous rules. Midstream operators are rethinking those plans now that federal legislation, passed and signed into law just last week, allows producers to ship all...

NEW YORK (AP) - The U.S. could soon end restrictions on oil exports put in place in the mid-1970s. The lifting of the embargo is part of a spending deal expected to be pushed through the House and Senate by the end of the week. Here are the reasons why the ban was in place, why is it is now being lifted and how consumers and businesses will be affected. GAS LINES Of all the bad memories seared into the American consciousness from the 1970s, never-ending lines at the gas pump tops the list for many people. The Organization of...

The US House on Dec. 3 approved by a 249-174 vote an energy bill with provisions to authorize crude oil exports and facilitate natural gas pipeline construction. Members cast ballots largely along party lines, with nine Democrats joining Republicans in favor of the measure, and three Republicans siding with Democrats against it. HR 8's chances of becoming law appeared dim, however, because it acquired the crude export provision when the House added it as an amendment a day earlier. The White House said it opposes that concept, and the US Senate does not appear ready to take the matter up....

The host of the Jacki Daily show has had an impressive career in energy, law, and politics. Most recently, Jacki served as General Counsel to an engineering firm specializing in energy, national security and environmental cleanup. Previously, she served many years as legal counsel on Capitol Hill to the Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and the former Ranking Member of the Commercial and Administrative Law Subcommittee, advising on the oversight of federal agencies. Prior to her career in Washington, she worked as a corporate litigator, and as an Assistant Vice President for a national bank. She entered...

In the early 1970s the United States was an oil superpower. Our fields produced over 9 million barrels of oil per day (bbl/d), accounting for more than 15% of the global marketplace. However, our energy consumption at the time still required us to import oil from members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other nations. During the Yom Kippur war in 1973 the U.S. supplied arms to our ally and friend, Israel. In retaliation, the Arab members of OPEC placed an embargo on the sale of crude oil to the U.S. and the price for a barrel...

In Segment 1, Dr. Ireland explains the benefits of lifting the decades-old ban on exporting U.S. crude oil. In Segment 2, Dr. Ireland explains the benefits of building the Keystone XL pipeline.

Just because you’ve been doing something for decades, that doesn’t mean that you need to keep doing it. Perhaps one of the best examples of this is the roughly forty year old ban we have on crude oil exports, enacted back when the Middle East oil barons decided to kick off an embargo, leading to skyrocketing gas prices and long lines at service stations. Congress seems to slowly be getting the message on this subject, and yesterday the House finally passed a bill to end the ban. (Yahoo News) A bill to repeal the U.S. oil export ban passed...

The group has watched the export debate, as any reduction in supply from exports could increase prices domestically. Some large manufacturers have warned that any policy that increases the cost of energy could move U.S. companies overseas. Cicio said he would support the bill if it did not repeal the president's authority. "We should not be so short sited," he told the Washington Examiner. Oil prices currently are low, but "in the future … it can become a very significant cost issue for manufacturing." "All we need is an adjustment" to the bill to keep the safety valve in place,...

If the Senate is going to lift the nation’s longstanding ban on oil exports, Sen. Pat Toomey wants to make sure a federal biofuels mandate vanishes at the same time. The Republican from Pennsylvania is advancing a plan — cosponsored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. — that would lift the requirement to blend traditional ethanol-based renewable fuels into U.S. gasoline. Toomey is set to offer the measure as an amendment to legislation that would authorize widespread oil exports when it is considered by the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday. The biofuel change is sought by some refiners — including a...

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. - Benjamin Franklin, at the signing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence- The previous article in this series on Saudi oil policies asked what the Saudis planned to do as their encore in 2016 after sacrificing approximately $100 billion in crude oil export revenue in 2015 in pursuit of market share. This article provides the author’s answer: the Saudis must alter course, seek a consensus on prices and volumes with their fellow OPEC members, coordinate with Russia, and reduce output from 2015’s average (approx. 10.5 mmbbl/d) to signal...

We recently looked at the restart of the first Japanese nuclear reactor in four years, and assessed its impact on Japanese oil demand. It was somewhat burying the lede, however, not to address the impact on LNG demand. So with Japan’s developments still fresh in our minds, here are ten challenges faced by the global LNG market: 1) Asia is the key market for LNG. Japan accounts for approximately 35% of the global LNG market. Combined with South Korea, it accounts for ~50% of it, while Asia as a whole accounts for 75%. The gradual return of nuclear reactors in...

Recently announced crude oil swaps with Mexico likely to provide economic and environmental benefits Under licenses approved earlier this month by the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), an office within the Department of Commerce that administers export controls on crude oil, volumes of crude oil produced in the United States and Mexico up to the approved volume cap will be exchanged. These swaps will likely involve U.S light sweet crude, such as the growing output from shale formations in the United States, and Mexican heavy sour crude. The approved swaps are expected to be both economically and environmentally beneficial...

The United States should consider allowing “strategic” crude exports to allies abroad while renegotiating the nuclear deal with Iran, Sen. Robert Menendez said. The New Jersey Democrat’s comments, part of a speech Tuesday at Seton Hall University to explain his opposition to the agreement, marked a shift in his approach to oil exports. Menendez historically has opposed moves to loosen the longstanding ban on exporting U.S. crude. But on Tuesday, Menendez highlighted oil exports as a geopolitical tool — a way for U.S. oil to compete in markets that might be customers for Iranian crude if the nuclear accord is...

A Senate panel has approved energy legislation that would lift the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports and open some areas of the Outer Continental Shelf to oil and gas exploration. Republican Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, chairman of the panel, championed the plan to lift the restrictions. It passed by a party-line vote of 12-10. Murkowski said lifting the ban would turn the U.S. into an energy superpower.

.S.-majority-owned multinational enterprises employed 1,106,700 in Mexico in 2012 (the latest year on record), according to data released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, but Mexican-majority owned enterprises employed only 68,800 in the United States that year. That means that U.S.-controlled multinationals employed 1,037,900 more people in Mexico than Mexican-controlled multinationals employed in the United States. Put another way, multinational enterprises that had a majority U.S. ownership employed 16 times as many people in Mexico as Mexican-controlled multinationals employed in the United States. Forty-nine percent of the jobs--546,500 of 1,106,700--that U.S.-controlled multinationals maintained in Mexico in 2012 were in...

The U.S. could export anywhere between 0.2 trillion cubic feet and 10.3 trillion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas annually by 2040, according to the latest government projection. Where along that spectrum the actual figure lands will be determined by global energy prices and the availability of U.S. natural gas, the agency said in a Tuesday rehashing of projections made in the Annual Energy Outlook for 2015. The wide range of outcomes hasn’t stopped U.S. companies from proposing dozens of new export facilities. While market watchers have said that it’s unlikely all of these facilities will come online, several are...

The U.S. should speed up its approval process for new liquefied gas export terminals if it wants to remain competitive against other countries eagerly preparing to supply the world with gas, a natural gas trade association argued Thursday. America’s Natural Gas Alliance on Tuesday called on the federal government to revamp its lengthy and expensive permitting process for projects aimed at exporting supercooled gas to foreign markets, arguing that such exports are in the country’s national interest. “The time is now for the U.S. to seize the day,” alliance President and CEO Marty Durbin said in a conference call with...

Texas refineries churning out gasoline and diesel — and selling the bounty overseas in record levels — helped make the Lone Star State an export leader in 2014, according to new government data. About a fifth of Texas’ $289 billion in exported goods last year were petroleum and coal products — about $59.1 billion worth — according to a report from the Commerce Department and U.S. Trade Representative. “Texas is leading the way,” Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker told reporters on a conference call to discuss the report Thursday. “They support more than 1.1 million jobs through exports.” Other national leaders...