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Oil Export News – How We Can Win!
Many Americans now favor lifting the crude oil export ban as long as higher gas prices don't result. (They won't.) With
the House and Senate both focusing heavily on energy initiatives, now is the time to unshackle domestic crude oil
producers and allow them to participate freely in the global marketplace.
With American energy production booming and gas prices plummeting, it's difficult to imagine a return to the shortages
that characterized the 1973 Arab oil embargo. But Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the rest of the Organization of Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) have recently launched a price war to force Americans back to a dependency on foreign
energy. They are being aided by an outdated U.S. policy prohibiting the export of domestic crude oil. The best way for
American legislators to combat OPEC's aggression is to lift this ban. Scrapping this outdated policy will secure
American progress towards energy independence. It's easy to see why OPEC is scared. Innovative extraction techniques
like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling have boosted U.S. oil production by 4 million barrels per day in just the
last six years. Consequently, U.S. demand for OPEC oil has dropped to its lowest level since the Reagan
administration.
The OPEC Countries don’t like Oklahoma, Texas, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, California and New Mexico.
Those states hold significant shale oil and natural gas reserves, and the increased production of American oil has
jeopardized the economic well-being of the oil-producing countries that make up OPEC. In the United States, oil and
natural gas producers work in a free market. When commodity prices are high, producers are encouraged to drill new
wells. As prices fall, the number of active drilling rigs falls with it. Ebbs and flows of oil and gas prices come with the
free market. The goal is to find a happy medium – a selling price for American crude oil that encourages investment in
exploration and production but also gives consumers affordable energy.
Twenty-one senators are urging the Obama administration to swiftly authorize an exchange of heavy Mexican crude
with a lighter U.S. variety and make broader changes to ease the flow of oil between the countries. The group of
senators, led by Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., endorsed a request to export 100,000 barrels
per day of light U.S. oil and condensates in exchange for heavy Mexican crude. Regulators at the Commerce
Department's Bureau of Industry and Security can approve such exchanges on a case-by-case basis under existing trade
laws. These potential transactions are in the national interest and, if applied for, should be authorized without delay.
Such a move would "harmonize" trade policy with Canada, with which the export of oil is allowed, Murkowski, the
chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement. "President Reagan authorized oil
exports to Canada 30 years ago—a decision that contributed to lower consumer fuel prices and greater domestic energy
production," Murkowski said. "Mexico deserves the same treatment. This is an opportunity for Congress and the
administration to work together for the common good."
Exporting oil could equate to more jobs, production and investment. A flood of oil from the nation's emerging shale
plays, among them the Permian Basin, has overwhelmed the global marketplace. That, in turn, has helped send crude
prices tumbling 60 percent from a little more than $100 in June to a little more than $50 a barrel today. "We were too
good at our jobs," said Scott Sheffield, chairman and chief executive officer of Pioneer Natural Resources while
discussing the nation's "shale oil revolution" with members of the Permian Basin Association of Division Order
Analyst ˈ