Washington: The House passed a bill to repeal 40-year-old US restrictions on most crude-oil exports, while lacking votes needed to override a presidential veto.

Lawmakers voted 261-159 in favour of the legislation, sponsored by Representative Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, with 26 Democrats voting to approve. The Obama administration has threatened to override the bill.

Stung by the sharpest drop in oil prices in a generation, companies including ConocoPhillips and Continental Resources Inc are leading efforts to repeal the trade limits, established during the 1970s-era of energy shortages and price controls. Some refiners, including PBF Energy Inc and Delta Air Lines Inc unit Monroe Energy LLC, support the ban that’s helped boost the profit margins for making gasoline and diesel.

“The time to act is now,” Jack Gerard, president of the American Petroleum Institute, a Washington-based industry group for oil and natural gas companies, said in a statement. Lifting the export ban creates US jobs and improves the nation’s energy security, he said.

It’s not clear how the Senate, where committees have passed two oil-export bills, will proceed. Efforts to repeal the ban in that chamber are being led by Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, and Heidi Heitkamp, a North Dakota Democrat.

Continued efforts

“I will continue pursuing all available options for ending the oil export ban in close partnership with Senator Heitkamp and our colleagues,” Murkowski said in a statement.

New York-traded oil futures have dropped 42 per cent in the past year, the most since 1991, to $49.63 (Dh182.14) a barrel.

The refiners argue that lifting the ban may put jobs in their industry at risk. Congressional opponents of easing the trade limits also have said doing so could have negative environmental impacts.

“It’s a bonanza for oil companies, but without any guaranteed benefit for consumers,” Representative Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said on the House floor before today’s vote.

The House overwhelmingly voted to keep in the bill a provision increasing federal payments to some maritime cargo operators who agree to make their vessels available to the US during national emergencies. Conservative groups FreedomWorks and Heritage Action for America opposed the provision, saying it was slipped into the legislation at the last minute and was a handout to corporations and unions.

Bill amendments

Among the amendments the House adopted were requirements for separate US studies on the greenhouse-gas and economic effects of lifting the crude-export ban. The bill also prevents crude and petroleum product sales to Iran and requires that the Commerce and Energy Departments review repeal of the ban after 10 years.

In the Senate, Democrats wield more influence than in the House, and it’s not clear whether the crude-export measure has enough support to win their backing. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, has said the ban is outdated, though he hasn’t scheduled a debate.

The House’s bipartisan vote “should now not be diluted by anyone agreeing to a smorgasbord of unrelated energy provisions” when the Senate takes up the measure, Stephen Brown, a lobbyist for San Antonio-based Tesoro Corp., said by email.

“That would be the quickest way to take support for the legislation to active opposition,” he said.

The House bill is HR 702.