US policymakers should provide an opening for normal exports of light crude and other hydrocarbons that are seeing increased production due to the shale boom, ConocoPhillips Chairman and CEO Ryan Lance said Tuesday at an industry gathering.
"We believe it's important to be globally interconnected in this business," Lance said at the IHS CERAWeek conference in Houston. The US still imports some 8 million b/d of crude, he noted.
The US boom in hydrocarbons production from shale is in liquids and light sweet crude, which a lot of Gulf Coast refineries are "not necessarily" set up to process. While some of those refineries can process Canadian and other heavy crudes, the lighter supply could be exported, Lance said.
"It's a subtlety, [energy] independence is one thing," but "ultimately, we'll have to include the exportation of crude," he said.
Lance's comments came as Daniel Yergin, vice chairman of IHS, asked the ConocoPhillips CEO to elaborate on remarks from his keynote speech regarding US exports of LNG and oil. Lance said he backed "allowing LNG exports and at some point even allowing the export of US oil."
