The U.S. Department of Commerce has permitted Pioneer Natural Resources and Enterprise Products Partners to export condensate that has been minimally refined. Via Reuters, the Commerce department allowed Pioneer to export condensate that has been put through a stabilizer, qualifying the crude as a refined product.
The move has sparked more speculation that the long-standing U.S. ban on crude oil exports could soon be relaxed, whether in its entirety or through incremental changes in policy. A Commerce department spokesman stressed that there has been no change in the federal government’s policy on crude oil exports. U.S. law prohibits the export of condensate that has come directly from an oil field but has not been processed at a refinery or a natural gas plant.
