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Oil CEOs Press Obama Administration to Lift Export Ban

Oil tankers sit at a rail yard at the Kinder Morgan Inc. facility in Richmond, California. U.S. energy policies severely restrict crude exports while applying no such limits to products processed in refineries. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg (Bloomberg) — About a dozen U.S. drilling executives, including ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Ryan Lance, were in Washington this week trying to persuade White House officials and lawmakers to lift the 40-year ban on U.S. oil exports, according to two people familiar with the meetings. Chief executives from the lobbying group Producers for American Crude Oil Exports, or PACE, met with White House senior energy policy adviser Brian Deese March 11 to ask the Obama administration to roll back a prohibition on most U.S. oil exports imposed after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, according to two people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions weren’t public. Producers are eager to […]

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EIA: US petroleum product exports rise for 13th consecutive year

HOUSTON, Mar. 5 03/05/2015 US exports of petroleum products averaged a record 3.8 million b/d in 2014—an increase of 347,000 b/d from 2013—based on data from the US Energy Information Administration’s Petroleum Supply Monthly . In particular, exports of motor gasoline, propane, and butane increased, offsetting a decrease in exports of distillate , EIA said. EIA noted that the combination of record-high US refinery runs, which averaged 16.1 million b/d in 2014, and increased global product demand allowed US product exports to rise for the 13th consecutive year. Most of these exports were sent to Central and South America, followed by exports to Canada and Mexico. In fact, product exports from the US increased in every region except the Middle East, which declined to 47,000 b/d in 2014 from 55,000 b/d in 2013, EIA said. Exports of motor gasoline (including finished gasoline and blending components) in December 2014 set […]

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Rivals Hit Oil Exporter That Opened U.S. Spigot

ENLARGE Oil companies using Enterprise Products terminals on the Houston Ship Channel say its loading fee are raising costs on their exports. Photo: Corbis A Houston pipeline company became the envy of the energy industry last year when it found a way around the decades-old legal ban on exporting U.S. oil. But now several oil companies have turned on the company, Enterprise Products Partners LP, complaining it is trying to dominate the lucrative export business and muscle out competitors. Companies including BP PLC have complained to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which is investigating, according to people familiar with the matter. The commission, BP and Enterprise all declined to comment on the probe. But people in the industry say it stems from Enterprise’s purchase last fall of a rival pipeline and logistics firm, Oiltanking Partners LP. The $5.9 billion deal gave Enterprise control of the single largest oil-storage operator […]

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Oil Exports From U.S. Jump to Record as Shale Output Booms

The U.S. exported a record amount of crude oil in November after a five-year run of production growth that has made the country the most oil-independent in 20 years. Shipments surged 34 percent to average 502,000 barrels a day in November, the highest on record dating back to 1920, surpassing the previous monthly peak of 455,000 barrels set in March 1957, data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Energy Information Administration show. The U.S. is now the 17th-largest exporter. The export record was unthinkable just five years ago, when U.S. crude production was still near a nadir following a 25-year decline. Since then, producers using horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing in underground shale rock have boosted output by 66 percent. Lawmakers in Washington are trying to end a 40-year-old law that restricts crude exports to just a few markets. “This is something we never expected to see,” said […]

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Oil Price Crash Claims First US LNG Project Casualty

URL: http://www.rigzone.com/news/oil_gas/a/136558/Exclusive_Oil_Price_Crash_Claims_First_US_LNG_Project_Casualty MILAN, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Excelerate Energy’s Texan liquefied natural gas terminal plan has become the first victim of an oil price slump threatening the economics of U.S. LNG export projects. A halving in the oil price since June has upended assumptions by developers that cheap U.S. LNG would muscle into high-value Asian energy markets, which relied on oil prices staying high to make the U.S. supply affordable. The floating 8 million tonne per annum (mtpa) export plant moored at Lavaca Bay, Texas advanced by Houston-based Excelerate has been put on hold, according to regulatory filings obtained by Reuters. The project was initially due to begin exports in 2018. Excelerate’s move bodes ill for thirteen other U.S. LNG projects, which have also not signed up enough international buyers, to reach a final investment decision (FID). Only Cheniere’s Sabine Pass and Sempra’s Cameron LNG projects have hit that […]

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Cheniere’s Corpus Christi LNG export project gains US FERC approval

Washington (Platts)–31Dec2014/453 pm EST/2153 GMT Federal regulators have approved Cheniere’s plan to export liquefied natural gas from Corpus Christi, Texas, following recommendations that the export facility and related infrastructure would result in minimal environmental impact if certain conditions are met. "We conclude that, with the conditions required herein, Corpus Christi Liquefaction’s project results in minimal environmental impacts and can be constructed and operated safely. Accordingly, we find that, subject to the conditions imposed in this order, Corpus Christi Liquefaction’s proposal is not inconsistent with the public interest," the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said in an order Tuesday. Cheniere now awaits approval from the Department of Energy to export LNG from the project to countries that do not have free trade agreements with the US. DOE makes public interest determinations for energy export projects, while FERC is responsible for the export facility design, engineering and environmental footprint — a far […]

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U.S. oil export policies increasingly fluid

Commerce Department showing some flexibility in what’s permissible for oil exports under existing legislation. UPI/Shutterstock/tcly WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 (UPI) — A company planning exports of so-called condensate from the United States said it’s operating according to precedent, though laws may be on the cusp of change. Data from the American Petroleum Institute show U.S. oil production is around 9.1 million barrels per day, the highest rate in roughly 40 years and an increase of more than 14 percent from last year. The increase in oil production is a direct result of activities in shale basins, notably the Eagle Ford and Bakken reserve areas in Texas and North Dakota, respectively. Conservative lawmakers have said the increase in a production means it’s time to relax laws that restrict crude oil exports. Arab members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries in the early 1970s placed an embargo on oil exports in […]

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U.S. agency gives quiet nod to light oil exports

Full Article WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The main U.S. export authority is telling some oil companies that they should consider exporting a lightly processed form of crude oil called condensate without formal permission, according to people familiar with the discussions. In conversations that may help clear the way for more overseas sales of U.S. shale oil, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has told companies seeking clarification on the legal status of so-called "processed condensate" that self-classification – whereby companies export their product without any formal authorization – could be a way forward, the people told Reuters. An official familiar with the law said the agency’s discussions did not represent a change in policy since self-classification is allowed under U.S. export controls and is a routine, common practice for the majority of exports. Yet the message, though carefully couched as an informal suggestion, marks the first sign […]

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Condensate Exports Without U.S. Approval Seen as Norm

No government approval for U.S. condensate exports? No problem, says the lawyer who has been instrumental in poking a hole in the 39-year-old ban on most crude oil shipments. By early next year, most companies will be following the lead of BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) and exporting processed condensate without explicit approval from the Bureau of Industry and Security, said Jacob Dweck, a lawyer with Sutherland Asbill & Brennan LLP. That would allow a larger chunk of the 650,000 barrels a day of U.S. condensate to be exported. The U.S. banned most crude exports in 1975, with a few exceptions including shipments to Canada . Exports of refined products such as gasoline and diesel fuel are unrestricted. U.S. policy makers are under pressure to lift the export ban as companies pull record volumes of oil and gas out of shale formations from North Dakota to Texas , boosting domestic […]

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EIA: ‘Modest’ benefits from LNG exports

Positive, but limited, benefits seen coming from more exports of LNG from U.S. ports, analysis finds. UPI/A.J. Sisco WASHINGTON, Nov. 12 (UPI) — An increase in natural gas production from U.S. shale basins should support export growth, but the economic benefits will be modest, the government said. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said in a daily brief Wednesday the increase in U.S. natural gas production should support as much as 80 percent of the potential increase in demand resulting from the steady gains in exports of liquefied natural gas from the Lower 48 states. EIA in an analysis found LNG exports reach 2 billion cubic feet by next year, and eventually surge to as high as 20 billion cubic feet per day. In its study, EIA found the "effects on overall economic growth [from the emerging LNG market] were positive but modest." Construction began in Louisiana for the Cameron […]

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