Murkowski praises end of oil export ban

With presidential approval, producers across the United States could soon join those in Alaska in being allowed to export domestic crude oil supplies to overseas markets.

Congress voted to end the 40-year ban with a provision included in a larger spending bill.

“Alaskans already know what Americans will soon know: that energy trade, so long as we are the exporter, is a great source of jobs, revenues, growth, and prosperity,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a major proponent of the congressional effort to lift the ban, said in a statement. “Lifting the ban will also be good for Alaska: it will alleviate competition for our oil at West Coast refineries, increase the price we receive for Alaska North Slope crude, and remove all remaining uncertainty about our long-term ability to export.”

As chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Murkowski had been proposing an end to the ban since a January 2014 speech at the Brookings Institute.

- Petroleum News