Reuters have an exclusive on discussions that US president Obama is having over the legalities of the US ban on oil exports.
The news comes after potential challenges to the ban from South Korea and NATO
Although discussions are at an early stage one lawyer who helped talks that created the WTO said that some of the reasons behind the ban would be unlikely to be defended successfully
“Not a single one of those exceptions is likely to be able to be successfully defended if somebody challenged it. That puts the White House in a position where it has to figure out what it’s going to do” said Alan Dunn, a lawyer at Stewart and Stewart
The US has allowed exports of certain types of crude but they are more for specialist products than the general market.
If, and it’s a big “if” the US is challenged and loses, it could signal a dramatic shift in the global oil picture.
Full story from Reuters here
