(Adds quotes from Shell CEO van Beurden, Commerce SecretaryPritzker)
NEW YORK, Sept 2 (Reuters) - U.S. policymakers shouldgradually lift the country's decades-old ban on crude oilexports because allowing the shipments would make the globalenergy system and fuel prices more stable, the head of RoyalDutch Shell Plc said on Tuesday.
"Policymakers here in the United States should embrace atruly liberalized, diverse and global energy market," ShellChief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden told an energyconference at Columbia University in New York.
U.S. oil and natural gas exports "would reinforce thelong-term future of North American energy production,"significantly improve the U.S. balance of trade, and "help tomake the global energy system much more stable," he said.
The United States has banned most crude exports since theArab oil embargo of the 1970s. But pressure on the Obamaadministration and on Congress to overturn the restriction hasrisen amid the domestic shale energy boom of the last severalyears. The United States is soon expected surpass Saudi Arabiaand Russia to become the world's top oil producer.
The Commerce Department in March allowed two companies,Enterprise Product Partners and Pioneer NaturalResources, to export an ultra light form of oil calledcondensate. The ruling became public in June.
But since then at least three applications for morecondensate exports have been put on hold.
Meanwhile, Washington has approved several applications toexport natural gas, with the first shipments expected next year.
In his first major public speech since becoming CEO of theenergy firm in January, van Beurden said that gradually liftingthe ban would be good for U.S. fuel consumers because it wouldallow the country's oil production to keep growing and to keepoil flowing to global refiners. That should keep fuel pricesfrom spiking, he said.
"I don't think it would be sensible to argue for animmediate opening overnight, but a systematic and gradualopening up of the export ban would be a sensible thing to do,"he said.
Anglo-Dutch Shell is the second-largest Western energycompany after Exxon Mobil Corp.
Congress is not expected to overturn the crude export banany time soon. Many lawmakers are concerned that by doing sothey could be blamed if gasoline prices rose, even if a pricemove was caused by other factors.
The Obama administration could take other steps, though,such as allowing crude oil swaps. But there are no indicationsof that happening soon either.
"At this point our policy regarding crude oil exportsremains as is," Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said on ateleconference with journalists on Tuesday.
Van Beurden said the U.S. shale revolution was a long timein the making. Shale resources will also develop in Argentina,China and Algeria, but it will take time, he added. (Reporting by Jessica Resnick-Ault in New York and TimothyGardner in Washington; Additional reporting by Krista Hughes;Editing by Ros Krasny, David Gregorio and Lisa Shumaker)
