A bill to pass the 40-year-old ban on US oil exports has been passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The bill, which was sponsored by Democrat Senator Heidi Heitkamp from North Dakota, passed 13 to 9. The politician was the only person from the Democrats to vote for the measure.
Just as gas export-terminals are preparing to start up along America’s Gulf Coast, the oil-price crash has made it unprofitable to send the U.S. fuel abroad, according to the North America head of power and natural gas supplier Engie. It costs about $2 to liquefy gas and another $3 to take it from the U.S. to Asia, said Zin Smati, president and chief executive officer of Engie’s GDF Suez Energy North America. Engie changed its name from GDF Suez SA in April. Those costs used to leave plenty of profit margin when the gap between LNG prices in Asia and natural gas in the U.S. was more than $14 per million British thermal units. Now, the spread is less than $5, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Repsol has received approval from Canadian regulators to begin exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from its Canaport import facility. The National Energy Board of Canada granted a 25-year permit to import as much as 312 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year by pipeline from the US and western Canada. It will then be converted to six million metric tons of LNG at a new on-site facility.
The US 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 US 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 chief executive of ConocoPhillips has called for US exports of surplus crude oil. Ryan Lance told policymakers attending a briefing at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) that the nation’s approaching surplus production of crude oil offers and opportunity for expanded global trade through exports. He said America could sustain the job creation and economic stimulation powered by the US energy renaissance, while putting downward pressure on consumer fuel prices and improving global energy security.
Collapsing crude prices have given oil producers a new argument for ending a 39-year-old US ban on exports. With US output at a 31-year high and imports at the lowest level since 1995, producers seeking the best possible price for crude are straining at having to keep sales at home. Removing the ban could erase an imbalance between US and foreign crude prices by expanding the market for shale oil.