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 Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Republican
Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska asked Adam Sieminski, head of the
Energy Information Administration, the DOE's statistics arm, to
prepare a number of reports on questions relevant to current crude
export policies.
"As you know, the possibility of lifting the ban — partially or
completely — has emerged as a subject of critical concern here in
the Congress," they wrote.
The senators asked the EIA to investigate current and projected
production of crude oil and condensates of different grades, the
ability of U.S. refiners to process domestic crude oil and
condensates, and logistics surrounding crude production, including
transport by rail.
They want the EIA to conduct a series of continuing reports rather
than a single authoritative study, which may not be useful when
reconsidering whether to lift the ban.
"This is a complex puzzle that is best solved with dynamic and
ongoing analysis of the full picture, rather than a static study of
a snapshot in time," the senators wrote.
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The United States is expected to become the world's top oil producer
by 2015, thanks to the drilling boom in North Dakota and Texas. That
puts pressure on the Obama administration to overturn the ban. But
analysts say there is little chance he will do so in a midterm
election year.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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