EXCISE TAX ON OIL MAY BE PUSHED

The Administration might support proposals to levy a $5-a-barrel oil excise tax in the near future, sources said today. A $5-a-barrel oil excise tax as a ''contingency'' levy for 1985 and beyond has already been proposed by the Administration.

Congressional and other sources suggested today that, by advocating an excise tax sooner than 1985 on both imported and domestic oil, the Administration may be signaling interest in pushing the idea independently of the standby plan.

The standby plan is included in a package of taxes that the Adminstration says will be necessary after 1985 if Federal deficits are not brought down to acceptable levels. The contingency plan is not given much chance of passage this year in Congress.

''Kind of an Invitation''

Proposing an oil excise tax is ''kind of an invitation, it seems to me,'' commented an aide to Senator Bill Bradley, Democrat of New Jersey. ''And if you're looking for a time to do it,'' he added, referring to the disarray over prices within the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, ''this is the time.''

Until now, the Administration has been steadfastly opposed to an oil excise tax, a possibility that has been widely discussed both as a way to raise revenues and as a means to preserve the hard-won gains in energy efficiency that followed previous increases in energy prices.

''By raising the subject, they've changed from it being totally verboten to meaning, well, maybe,'' said another Congressional aide who asked that he not be identified.