The US is set to lift a 4-decade ban on export of oil, a move that may benefit countries like India by giving them an option to purchase crude from non-West Asian countries.
The measure allowing oil exports is at the centre of a deal Congressional leaders announced on Wednesrday on spending and tax legislation. Both the House and Senate still must pass it and President Barack Obama must sign it into law. This legislation is scheduled to be voted on this week before Congress adjourns for winter break.
“We are lifting the Government’s 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports. This is big win for American jobs and for our energy industry. It’s a big win for our manufacturers and for our foreign policy,” Paul Ryan, Speaker of the US House of Representatives told reporters after Congressional leaders agreed on the $1.1 trillion spending bill for the current fiscal ending on September 30, 2016. Ryan said it has been 40 years since the ban was implemented in 1975 amid the Arab oil embargo and petroleum shortages. In just the past few years alone, the US lost 80,000 jobs because oil producers have been forced to scale back their rigs by nearly 60 per cent.
lifting the ban would create an estimated one million American jobs in nearly all 50 states within a matter of years, and it would add $170 billion annually to the US GDP, Ryan said. The move could benefit countries like India in the long run, giving it another option to purchase crude oil from non-Middle eastern countries.