REUTERS
Congressional leaders unveiled a broad package of spending and tax legislation that would avert a U.S. government shutdown and lift the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports, Bloomberg reported.
House Speaker Paul Ryan unveiled the plan at a closed-door meeting of fellow Republicans Tuesday night, according to the report.
The $1.1 trillion U.S. government spending bill is paired with legislation to revive expired tax breaks a day before the latest deadline to avoid a shutdown.
The measure would finance the government through September 2016.
Pressure has been building to lift the ban on crude oil exports from the United States as new drilling technologies unlocked reserves in shale formations, pushing output and stockpiles to records, and hammering prices.
The U.S. restriction on oil exports was established during the energy supply shortages of the 1970’s. In this way, Washington and the oil cartel countries have maintained oil trade balances in the world, which is now suffering from oversupply.
Some analysts believe such decision will entail significant structural changes on the market, while forecasting further oil price declines. Analysts would claim that even rumors of the cancellation of the ban on crude oil exports from the United States had an impact on the situation on that market.
Lifting the ban and possible consequences of such decision will be disadvantageous to Russia, which suffers from oil prices drop.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on December 15, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the country's budget for 2016, which projects a deficit of almost $34 billion with an average price of Urals oil, Russia's key export, at $50 a barrel.
Yet, the price of Urals oil dropped on December 14 to $34 per barrel, for the first time since December 2008.
Chief of the Russian Sberbank forecasts a difficult year for the country's economy and its banking sector.