Refiners’ Loss Roils Politics of Oil’s Push to End Export Ban
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Buried in the latest government analysis on lifting the crude-oil export ban is a piece of data that shows why ending the limits will be a heavy lift: It would cut refiners’ profits by $22 billion a year.
The report shows that dropping the ban, which dates to the 1970s Arab oil embargo, could lower gasoline prices for drivers and boost domestic oil drillers. But refiners -- one of the nation’s most powerful industries -- would be the losers.