U.S. oil output is buffering global crude prices and critical to the world’s supply balance amid the threat of disruptions, even as a ban on domestic exports remains in place, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said. A surge in the nation’s oil output comes as markets are faced with near-historic highs of unanticipated outages, Moniz, 69, said at a talk organized by the public-affairs forum Commonwealth Club in San Francisco yesterday. He agreed with a government report finding U.S. gasoline prices may drop should the prohibition on crude exports be lifted. Moniz is leading the Energy Department through an unprecedented boom in U.S. fuel production. The nation’s oil output has jumped to a 28-year high and natural gas supplies have increased by so much companies are building terminals to send the fuel overseas. The surge has prompted his agency to review everything from the country’s four-decade ban on crude exports […]