Oil groups set to export US crude – FT.com

Oil groups set to export US crude – FT.com.

Some of the world’s biggest oil companies and traders are poised to export substantial amounts of crude from the US for the first time in decades, as booming output there promises to reshape global energy markets.

Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Vitol, the world’s largest independent oil trading house, are among the six companies known to have applied to the US government for export licences, the Financial Times has learnt.

A surge of exports from the US would affect oil trading patterns between Europe, west Africa and North America. Greater supplies in the Atlantic basin are likely to put pressure on physical prices of other crudes in the region, particularly Brent, the North Sea benchmark.

Oil prices have this year soared to well above the $100 per barrel level that many governments consider a drag on economic growth.

US federal rules and the country’s dependency on imports have kept all but a trickle of crude from leaving the US. But a surge in supplies from states such as Texas and North Dakota have prompted companies to seek out refinery customers in Canada.