"U.S. Oil Export Battle Heats Up as Drillers Group To Fight Ban"

"More than a dozen oil producers have joined to lobby the federal government to reverse the 40-year-old ban on U.S. crude exports, a move that supporters say would create jobs and keep the energy boom alive, a spokesman for one of the companies and a lobbyist for another one said on Friday.

Producers for American Crude Oil Exports, or PACE, is the first lobbying group to form to reverse the trade restriction passed by Congress in the 1970s after the Arab oil embargo caused fears of domestic oil shortages. As the U.S. oil boom of the last six years builds an excess of crude, calls have risen for Congress and the Obama administration to relax the ban.

'The end game here is legislative repeal of the ban,' said a lobbyist for one of the member producers, who did not want to be named because the group was only recently formed."

Timothy Gardner reports for Reuters October 24, 2014.