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WASHINGTON—House Republicans plan to vote on a bill in the coming weeks to lift the nation's four-decade ban on oil exports, a move expected to reignite debate over what to do with oil from a boom in domestic production over the past decade.

The vote would please more than a dozen oil companies lobbying Congress, and if successful, it could rattle global oil markets facing volatility and lower prices.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) is expected to announce the vote, being scheduled for the last week of September, at a Tuesday speech in Houston. While the legislation is likely to pass the GOP-controlled House, its prospects in the Senate are less clear. The White House hasn't taken a position on the issue.

"If there was ever a time to lift the oil export ban, it's now," Mr. McCarthy plans to say in Houston, according to prepared remarks viewed by The Wall Street Journal. "Lifting the oil export ban will not only help our economy, it will also bolster our geopolitical standing."

More than a dozen oil companies—including Continental Resources Inc., ConocoPhillips Co. and Marathon Oil Corp.—have been pressing the issue with Congress over the past year. They argue that allowing unfettered domestic oil exports would eliminate market distortions, streamline U.S. petroleum production and stimulate the domestic economy.

Some refineries with business primarily in the U.S. and consumer interest groups oppose domestic exports, saying they would raise gasoline prices for U.S. drivers.

Refineries have been exporting refined oil products, like gasoline and diesel, in record amounts in recent years because the ban applies only to crude, not products refined from that crude.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, said in a report released earlier in September that lifting the ban wouldn't increase U.S. gasoline prices and could even help lower them.

House GOP leadership and the chief sponsor of the bill, Rep. Joe Barton (R., Texas), hope to get nearly all Republican members of the House and at least 20 Democrats to support the measure. The White House, which hasn't taken a position on oil exports, may issue an official statement articulating whether it supports the bill or not—something the Obama administration often does before Congress votes on legislation.

Mr. McCarthy is scheduling the vote for the last week of September, but fights over unrelated spending issues could push the vote on oil exports by a week or two, according to GOP House aides. Mr. McCarthy is also expected to announce Tuesday the House plans to vote on other energy legislation streamlining pipeline infrastructure and seeking to enhance U.S. energy security.

A Senate panel voted earlier this summer on similar legislation to lift the oil-export ban, but no Democrats supported the measure. That bodes poorly for its prospects before the full Senate, should it come up for a vote at all in the coming weeks.

A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), whose office controls the floor schedule in the Senate, declined to comment. Mr. McConnell hasn't weighed in on the topic publicly.

Exporting oil was unthinkable to most energy industry experts until the past couple of years as production increased. Support on Capitol Hill also has been growing faster than many observers thought given concern about how exporting oil could, or could be perceived to, raise gas prices—a politically fraught election issue.

In response to industry requests, the Obama administration already has taken some incremental steps to ease the growing glut of domestically produced oil, which is pumping at a rate of 9.3 million barrels a day—more than 70% higher than five years ago—with commercial crude stockpiles near all-time highs.

Last year, the Commerce Department began allowing companies to export ultralight oil after minimal processing, and last month it said it would begin allowing companies to exchange U.S. crude with Mexico.

The U.S. is also already exporting more than a half-million barrels of crude a day to Canada, the biggest exemption under the ban. That is 14 times as much as in 2007, but still just roughly 5% of U.S. oil produced a day.

The ban, which Congress put in place in the aftermath of the 1970s Arab oil embargo, is the last remaining part of the export debate.

--Christian Berthelsen contributed to this article.

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 15, 2015 12:05 ET (16:05 GMT)

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