US may join world's biggest oil exporters

Nation could be capable of sending 2.4 million barrels a day overseas by 2025 if the ban is lifted

The United States will become one of the world's largest oil exporters if domestic production continues to surge and policymakers lift a four-decade ban that keeps most crude from leaving the country, a government-sponsored study shows.

America would be capable of sending as much as 2.4 million barrels a day overseas in 2025 if federal policymakers were to eliminate restrictions on most crude exports, an analysis by Turner, Mason & Co for the Energy Information Administration shows. That would make the US the fourth-largest oil exporter, behind Saudi Arabia, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, based on 2013 EIA data. The report assumes domestic output rises by 7.2 million barrels a day from 2013.