Any oil that has been processed through a distillation tower -- a preliminary form of refining -- is no longer defined as crude oil, and therefore is eligible for export, said Jim Hock, a
department spokesman, in an e-mailed statement yesterday.
Pioneer uses a distillation unit to stabilize oil it produces in the Eagle Ford Shale of South Texas, most of which is condensate.
The Commerce Department “recently confirmed our interpretation
that the distillation process by which our Eagle Ford Shale condensate is stabilized is sufficient to qualify
the resulting hydrocarbon stream as a processed petroleum product eligible for export without a license,” Pioneer said in an e-mailed statement.