Partial Lift of Crude Oil Export Ban

Back in February 2014, oil-price.net posted an astonishing report on the US government's trade restrictions on its own oil industry. While other governments protect their home industries and give preference to their own national interests, by a convoluted path of logic, successive administrations in the US stymied the producers of crude oil in the USA. You can read that full report here: Oil Export Ban Hurts US Oil Industry. However, moves are now afoot to ease this restriction. By one method or another, the crude oil export ban may be undermined to the point that it is meaningless. This is one more battle in the war between US oil producers, who want the export ban lifted, and US oil refiners, who want to keep the ban. The battleground is the definition of what constitutes "crude" and "refined" oil.