A Preston Clive Forecast Ah, the memories. Thank god that didn't include the air pump for bicycle tires (IMG courtesy History.com) Let's face it, beyond the effect on prices around the globe our gigantic national oil glut has been triggering, the overstocks have no begun to test the capacity limits of our inventory storage infrastructure without (at least without investing in additional facilities, and the last thing the energy sector needs is additional overhead on a product whose quantity is draining the profit out of itself. A group of CEO's of US oil production corporations, "including ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Officer Ryan Lance, were in Washington this week trying to persuade White House officials and lawmakers to lift the 40-year ban on U.S. oil exports," according to a just published Bloomberg article syndicated in Yahoo. The article goes on: Chief executives from the lobbying group Producers for American Crude Oil Exports, or PACE, met with White House senior energy policy adviser Brian Deese March 11 seeking a rollback of the U.S. oil export ban imposed after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, according to two people, who asked not to be identified because the discussions weren’t public. The reasons for the export ban are clear and potent: first off it makes no sense during today's market. If at some point in the future it becomes necessary to ratchet back overseas sales for reasons of home stock and 1970's style gas crisis prevention, the ban can always be reinstated. But at the moment there is simply no reason to be piling oil up to such an absurd degree for no reason whatsoever. When a statute serves nothing but a long-obsolete national scenario, and does little else but hurt the country, it's time to whip out federal pen and paper and start issuing new law. Of course this ban curtails crude and only crude--refined oil and gasoline is doing gangbuster numbers in foreign markets. And of course, the big motivator behind all of this is the fact that crude fetches a higher price per barrel on the international market versus the home market. These CEO's naturally want a piece of that action, especially while crude is trading at these glut-driven low prices. So what say all? By end of month, do you think we will see at least a verbal confirmation of intent from the administration to lift this musty old ban? Will Brent (BZ) and WTI (WTI) supplies see a converging in the market? Cast your votes today!